North Korean Economic Meltdown: From Where Does North Korea Get the money?

"Either you fall in line or you're dead" this phrase can summarise the whole legal system of North Korea. On one side, in a country struggling with extreme poverty, people scrambled to get to 2 square meals a day. On the other side, the lavish lifestyle of the supreme leader, big military parade, and testing of high-level missiles. These are opposite scenes unfolding in the same nation.

North Korea is one of the closest countries in the world. The country's citizens are not allowed to travel abroad. North Korea only has business relations with a few Nations. You must be wondering then how North Korea can get money for the lavish lifestyle of the supreme leader and big missile tests?

Kim Kuk Song, a former high-level North Korean official revealed in an interview with the BBC that most of the money comes from various illegal sources.

To understand the whole story let's go back to 1994, one of the deadliest famines that struck North Korea. The famine was named ``Arduous March”. The famine accounted for more than 10 lakh deaths. Kim revealed that when citizens are scrambling for food the supreme leader was surprisingly enjoying himself A selection of wines each night. But the leader used propaganda and spread the message that Kim Jong-Il was just surviving on half a bowl of rice a day

He revealed that he was ordered in the 1990s to increase the “Revolutionary fund” for the supreme leader. To do the same he traveled abroad and came back with 3 people who are experts in making a drug known as crystal meth. There was a proper factory constructed in North Korea to manufacture crystal meth. The country started earning by smuggling drugs around the world.

The second source of income was the supply of illegal weapons. North Korea manufactured weapons and smuggled them to many nations like Sudan, the Middle Eastern Nations, and Myanmar. Most of the time these weapons were supplied to a nation torn apart by civil war.

He told BBC that North Korea has assembled a team of more than 6000 expert hackers who get direct command from the supreme leader. In 2017 many British institutions were hacked Anant 2014 Sony was hacked as well. Both of the attacks were allegedly conducted by the same group of North Koreans.

He dropped a lot of other bombshells in the interview with BBC about the inner function of the North Korean regime.

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