HONOLULU -- The recent seizure of the ship Pong Su off Australia and its cargo of more than $144 million of heroin has put North Korea's drug trafficking in the international spotlight. The attention is long overdue. There must be a strong response by the international community and concerted efforts to halt North Korean drug trafficking. The ASEAN Regional Forum and the Proliferation Security Initiative provide a ready platform for this effort.

North Korea's illegal drug production is not an ad hoc operation. South Korean intelligence believes North Korean farmers, under direct instructions from the leadership in Pyongyang, have been developing numerous poppy farms since the late 1970s. It is estimated that cultivated areas expanded from 1.3 million pyung (1 pyung is approximately 4 square meters) in 1992 to 12.8 million pyung in 1993, and 21.8 million pyung in 1994. Government factories reportedly process the cultivated opium into heroin; companies and diplomatic economic departments then distribute it.

Sources say Aesung Chongguk (under office No. 39 of the North Korean Worker's Party) is in charge of selling opium overseas, while Daesung Chongguk coordinates opium trafficking through its trading corporation Daesung Sangsa, which has 20 overseas branches. North Korea is thought to produce more than 40 tons of opium a year; estimates of revenue earned range from a low of $48 million to as much as $1 billion annually if all illegal drugs, such as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines are included.