In 2005, available estimates of the North Korean drug trade placed opium production at 44 tons a year.
Source: Matthew Quirk, “The world in numbers: The New Opium War,” The Atlantic Monthly, March 2005, pg. 52-53.

Source: Sarah Buckley, “Escaping North Korea,” BBC News, July 28, 2004,(accessed: May 23, 2006).

Source: Andrei Lankov, “The Natural death of North Korean Stalinism,” Asia Policy, No.1, January 2006, pg. 95-121, (accessed: May 23, 2006).

Published reports have stated that the as many as 500,000 North Koreans may have been to China and returned back to North Korea over the past ten years.
Source: Andrei Lankov, ” How to Topple Kim Jong Il,” Foreign Policy, March/April 2007, pg. 71.

Source: Sarah Buckley, “Escaping North Korea,” BBC News, July 28, 2004,(accessed: May 23, 2006).

United States Authorities have seized around 50 Million Counterfeit Dollars known as Supernotes that originated from North Korea.
Source: AP, “U.S. fights N. Korea efforts to forge currency,” MSNBC.com, August 7, 2006,(accessed: September 3, 2006).

Source: Korea Times, “NK Earns $20 Million a Year From Counterfeiting: Expert” , May 15, 2005.

Source:  “Fake Cigarettes ‘N. Korea’s Biggest Money-Spinner’,” Chosum Ilbo, August 17, 2006, (accessed: August 18, 2006).

The counterfeit cigarettes are sold in China, Japan, and the United States.
Source: Richard Lloyd Parry, “An economy built on drug dealers, ivory poachers and counterfeiters”, The Times (United Kingdom), October 11,2006.