North Korea have a real drug problem? The world is shocked by the details

A DEFECTOR from North Korea has sensationally claimed that local people are hooked on drugs as a result of living in “big criminal state” which he claims is fuelled by the drugs industry.

Kim Hyeong-soo, who escaped Kim Jong-Un’s dictatorship in 2009, has claimed the hermit kingdom is depended on the drugs industry.

Having worked for the government’s top secret research body, the Longevity Institute, Mr Hyeong-soo claimed the hermit state is trading opium and that locals are getting hooked.

Mr Hyeong-soo said: “Kim Il-sung gave an internal decision to party officials that they should support the opium industry.

"But they couldn't call them opium manufacturers, so they used a code name or terminology; they called it White Flowers."

He added: "It's very accessible even to the general public. The North Korean government initiated the illegal drugs, but now it's expanded to the general market.

"A lot of the people within the manufacturing industry would actually steal one or two grammes because it's the equivalent of their month's salary.

"Because there is no medication available a lot of people would use opiates as a painkiller, so they would take it orally or intravenously."

The former resident of the hermit kingdom claimed medicine donated to North Korea by the international community and South Korea was immediately seized by the regime and sold at extortionate prices, leaving people with little access to conventional pain relief. 

Speaking exclusively to Daily Star, Mr Hyong-soo said: "Tuberculosis was a disease that was going on in North Korea and the medication that was given by South Korea and the international community was sold on the black market.

"For one month’s worth, it would cost the equivalent of what a labourer would make in five years. So of course I have seen a lot of my relatives having children that would die of tuberculosis."

In a damning claim, Mr Hyeong said the regime was using the funds to fuel its development of nuclear weapons.

He said:  "I can literally say that North Korea is just a big criminal site where Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un have taken 25 million people hostage."