| Publication |
2008.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
North Korea has successfully obtained a substantial amount of money through illegal or questionable methods, such as the counterfeiting of hard currency, illegal sales of military equipment or technology, sales of illegal drugs, and the shipment of illegal cargoes between third-party countries. This communist country has sheltered or actively abetted a handful of criminal networks in order to bypass the global power of the United States, the winner of the Cold War.
Despite the strong signals from a conservative U. S. administration, there are signs that tensions in the Korean Peninsula may be lessening. North Korea has invited nuclear experts from the United States, China, and Russia into the country to survey and recommend ways of disabling all of its atomic facilities. In return, Washington has agreed to open talks on normalizing diplomatic relations with the North and to explore removing a terrorism designation for Pyongyang, an essential step for North Korea to rely less on transnational illegal activities and more on legitimate economic activities that are integrated into the world economy.
|