Korea, South

South Korea is an East Asian country bordered by China, Japan, and North Korea. The fourth-largest economy in Asia, it is principally driven by exports of electronics, vehicles, petrochemicals, and machinery. South Korea approaches drug use and trafficking quite seriously, no doubt in part because of North Korea's heavy involvement in drug trafficking. Drugs are regulated by both the Criminal Act and the Narcotic Substance Control Act of 2000, which mandate a minimum prison sentence of one year for virtually any drug-related crime—sales, import, possession, or manufacture. The aim of policy is to discourage the use of any dangerous [Page 454]or habit-forming drug, and parole is rarely granted to criminals convicted on drug charges. That said, neither production nor abuse is a major problem in Korea. Marijuana cultivation is licensed by the health department for medicinal use, as is hemp for fiber. Illicit marijuana cultivation varies wildly, the climate being especially variable and not always hospitable to the plant. Although all poppies are illegal to grow, some farmers grow their own small crops of opium poppies; however, these poppies are rarely processed into opium, since they are grown to prepare a folk medicine remedy for livestock. In the cities, any marijuana sold more likely originates from South Africa or Nigeria rather than rural Korea. Among college students, club drugs like ecstasy and LSD have some degree of popularity, and are usually introduced by American or European students and tourists. The drug of choice for most Korean drug users is methamphetamine, but even it is used by less than 0.2 percent of the population between the ages of 15 and 64. Heroin and cocaine are extremely rare. In 2009, South Korea officially outlawed synthetic cannabinoid drugs such as those sold in branded blends like “Spice.”

Trafficking, on the other hand, is a significant problem. The South Korean port of Pusan is East Asia's second-largest port, and South Korea has frequent trade with the United States, lending itself well to drug traffic. The trafficked drugs include heroin from Thailand, China, North Korea, and Canada; hashish from Iran and South Africa; methamphetamine from Thailand, North Korea, China, and the Philippines; and chemical precursors manufactured in China, then sent to South America and the Middle East where they are used in the processing of heroin and cocaine. In recent years, the government has worked harder to control the borders and watch the ports. In 2003 the Korean National Police Agency created a new narcotics detail, with dedicated narcotics squads at 14 metropolitan provincial districts—this marked the first time any South Korean police officer had been assigned solely to narcotics investigations. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in Seoul has been providing narcotics investigation training sessions at the Korean Police Academy for these narcotics units, as well as the customs department, the Korean National Intelligence Service, the Korean Maritime Police, and the Korea Supreme Prosecutor's Office. The distribution of power in South Korea makes investigations difficult, however. For instance, the Korean National Police Agency does not actually have substantial investigative authority, unlike the police forces in the West; instead, police report cases to the prosecutor's office, in the Ministry of Justice, which then opens and pursues the investigation. New legislation in 2004 created criminal sanctions for the illicit shipment of precursor chemicals used for processing narcotics, but the agency tasked with enforcing the law is the Korean Food and Drug Administration, which is limited in resources and usually concerned with much less serious crimes.

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