North Hamgyong reports a 40% rise in drug crime and orders a summer crackdown

The provincial security bureau told the party committee in early July 2024 that drug offences in North Hamgyong had risen 40% from a year earlier, with more than 900 cases in Chongjin in the first half of the year. The committee made July and August an intensive crackdown and said smuggling drugs to China should draw heavier sentences, up to death. Its instruction went beyond the criminal law's own ladder, which reserves death for extremely large amounts. The report covered narcotics generally and did not say how many cases involved cannabis.^[1]