North Korea Is A Major Opium Producer, Making It A Prime Target For The CIA
May 8, 2017
North Korea is starting to produce more opium in a bid to financially prop up its regime following Chinese sanctions on its coal exports. Will its increased opium production make it a target for the U.S. military? History suggests this may be the case.
MINNEAPOLIS– (Analysis) When the U.S. overthrew the Taliban in the wake of 9/11 as part of its newly launched “war on terror,” it set the stage for the explosive growth of Afghanistan’s dying opium industry. A few short months before the invasion took place, the Taliban made headlines for having “dramatically ended the country’s massive opium trade” after the leader of the fundamentalist group had declared the substance to be un-Islamic. At the time, Afghanistan’s opium was used to produce 75 percent of the world’s heroin.
But despite being squashed by the Taliban, the opium market made a dramatic comeback immediately following the U.S. invasion in October 2001. Not only was the opium trade restored, it surged drastically – rising from a production level of 185 tons under the Taliban (before the production ban) to 3,400 tons in 2002.
