North Korea's involvement in state-directed crime-for-profit activities

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In this research, North Korea’s incentives for engaging in state-directed crime-for-profit activities will be examined. The Democratic People´s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is an unique case in terms of Organized Crime, since several intelligence and political sources in the United States, South Korea, Russia and Japan have found evidence that these activities are not only accepted by the government but government ？ directed. Especially since the 1970s counterfeiting (of US currency and cigarettes), money laundering, drug sale, weapons sale and other illegal activities like smuggling of ivory are on the list of the DPRK Government ？ related crimes. These activities take not only place in Asian countries but word-wide.
The central purpose of this thesis is to analyze which incentives the North Korean government has to get involved in state-directed crime, how the profits deriving from crime are related to the national GDP and whether one can expect these illegal activities to continue under the rule of the new leader Kim Jong-Un. By taking a look at the main goals of the North Korean Government and its options to achieve these goals, three essential motivations of the DPRK to get involved in and continue criminal activities will be presented: an economic incentive (to prevent a collapse of the weak economy and to stick to Juche ideology), a national policy incentive (to guarantee loyalty of the elites in party and military) and a foreign policy incentive (by using the earned hard currency for the purchase and development of its missile and nuclear program). By taking into account existing information about the new regime under Kim Jong-Un and current political events, it will be analyzed to which extent the international community must expect a continuation of North Koreas state-directed crime-for-profit activities.