For a majority of the North Koreans, the 1990s were a decade of famine, mass death and social disintegration. But for a small minority of adventurous, entrepreneurial, ruthless and hard-working people it was, in some ways, a dream time, years when somebody with no capital to invest, and with little connections, could make a fortune in few years (with a remarkably high probability of perishing in the process).

Many, but not all, get-rich schemes of the 1990s would be illegal in any state, let alone North Korea. These schemes involved narcotics, counterfeit tobacco, and antiques (both real and fake). Indeed, the