North Korea: Illicit Activity Funding the Regime: Hearing Before the Federal Financial Management, Government Information

Original publisher: Washington: U.S. G.P.O.: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 2007. LC Number: KF26 .H633 2006k OCLC Number: (OCoLC ... Show synopsis Original publisher: Washington: U.S. G.P.O.: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 2007. LC Number: KF26 .H633 2006k OCLC Number: (OCoLC)137336194 Subject: Korea (North) -- Politics and government -- Corrupt practices. Excerpt: ...11 drugs to organized crime groups. In general, we know that cultiva-tors and producers at the lower end of the drug chain don't reap the huge profits and value that people do distributing at retail. North Koreans are not distributing the drugs at retail. So unfortunately, I think the honest answer that people can give is it is very difficult and a highly speculative process trying to as-sess the value of these illicit activities. ARPER Senator C. Is it likely that any time soon we will have a better idea what the nature of those activities are and the mag-nitude of them? RAHAR Mr. P. We watch this issue extremely carefully and, as you know, there have been some Federal indictments filed on both coasts recently. Ongoing investigations and prosecutions of this type may reveal additional information about this. We believe that these funds, as I said in the testimony, could be supporting weap-ons of mass destruction development and otherwise supporting a tottering regime and the leadership elite of that country. So it is a matter of great concern. Senator C. I would like to come back maybe in a second ARPER round and pursue that, if we could, but thanks so much for re-sponding to those questions. OBURN Senator C. Mr. Merritt, would you explain to us how the PATRIOT Act is involved in operations to combat counterfeiting and trafficking? What specific aspect of that Act has allowed you, for example, in Macau to identify and then put a bank on notice or on a list that will lessen its impact in terms of trafficking? ERRITT Mr. M. Actually, Mr. Chairman, the Treasury Department makes that determination. We were fortunate in that we were the recipients of the Section 311 instituted by the Treasury Depart-ment in the Macau bank in Ch... Hide synopsis