That North Korea has black markets, which sprang up during famine of the 1990s and which continue to help supply the needs of the populace, is well-known.

Less-known, perhaps, is how this informal economy now extends to illicit activities the Pyongyang regime once monopolized, such as drug trafficking. A recently released report, published by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, highlights this development.

The author of “Illicit: North Korea’s Evolving Operations to Earn Hard Currency” is Sheena Chestnut Greitens, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution