북한의 마약범죄방지법 신설을 통한 마약범죄 처벌의 확대

Although North Korea declared a war on drugs in the late 2000s and executed drug offenders by firing squad, drug use has spread to the center of the country, Pyongyang, and has spread to various ages, genders, and classes, including teenagers and housewives. Especially after the border closure due to COVID-19, the number of North Koreans taking opiates and other drugs has increased dramatically to replace the lack of medicines. As the problem of drug abuse and addiction has grown in North Korea, the Prevention of Drug Crimes Act was enacted in 2021, and the North Korean Criminal Code was also revised in 2022 to strengthen drug crime regulations. In the Prevention of Drug Crimes Act, the subjects of criminal punishment can be divided into acts related to direct supply, manufacturing, and storage of drugs, and cases of participation in such acts. Among these, the provisions on the former are based on the provisions on drug crimes stipulated in Chapter 6 of the North Korean Criminal Law, so in reality, there is no difference from the provisions on drug crimes in the North Korean Criminal Law and only has a symbolic meaning. On the other hand, the provisions on criminals involved in drug crimes among the provisions stipulated in the Prevention of Drug Crimes Act have a practical meaning of expanding the scope of punishment for drug crimes under the North Korean Criminal Law. This is because the North Korean Criminal Code does not have a special provision for those involved in drug offenses. Assessments of the enactment of the Prevention of Drug Crimes Act have been divided into two camps: on the one hand, there is the evaluation that it reflects North Korea’s will to punish illegal drug manufacturing and trafficking more strictly due to growing concerns that drug crimes are having a negative impact on North Korean society and the health of its citizens, and on the other hand, it is an extension of the work undertaken by Kim Jong Un to institutionally hold officials accountable. The validity of both of these evaluations of the Prevention of Drug Crimes Act is confirmed through the analysis of the provisions of the Prevention of Drug Crimes Act and the revised provisions of North Korea’s Criminal Code. Ultimately, the Prevention of Drug Crimes Act finds its legal significance in that it stipulates the expansion of criminal punishment for those who indirectly participate in drug crimes in order to suppress drug crimes, and this indicates the meaning of strong control over North Korean officials who have indirectly participated in drug crimes in the form of criminals involved in them.