Hong Kong ( CNN ) -- North Korea 's sanction-hit regime has long been accused of drug trafficking as a source of hard currency , but a new report claims drug producers are finding a ready market closer to home and that as many as two-thirds of North Koreans have used methamphetamines . According to a report in the Spring 2013 edition of the journal North Korean Review , stricter China border controls have forced methamphetamine producers in the north to seek a local market for `` ice '' ( known locally as `` bingdu '' ) . The report 's co-author , Professor Kim Seok Hyang , of South Korea 's Ewha Woman 's University , told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that interviews with North Korean defectors suggested that the country is in the grip of an `` ice '' plague . `` Some informants are saying almost every adult in North Korea around the China-North Korea border are using methamphetamine , '' she said , adding that the drug was often used as a palliative in place of hard-to-obtain prescription medicine . `` Actually , the hospital medical system ( has ) stopped for such a long time , so they need something to cure their pain ... physical pain , '' she said . `` But once they get addicted to methamphetamine , there 's no way for them to get out of it . '' The North Korean regime releases no official figures on drug addiction and Professor Kim said the scale of the problem could not be statistically verified . `` But almost everybody in my interview is saying so , especially those who left North Korea after 2009 , '' she told the ABC . She said that interviewees told her the drug could be ordered casually and easily in restaurants , and that it had become difficult to control since it had become the drug of choice of high-ranking officials and the police . While readily available , however , informants told her it was still expensive and did not indicate that North Korea had a greater level of disposable income for recreational drug use . `` Using methamphetamine does not mean they have enough money to dispose ( of ) , '' Professor Kim said . `` They had to get it with all the money they have . '' North Korea has been widely rumored to manufacture high-grade methamphetamine as a state policy for generating hard cash . Estimates on how much North Korea generates through illegal activities such as arms trades , drug sales and counterfeiting are speculative , but reports say Pyongyang 's shadowy `` Room 39 '' directs illicit trade that generates millions for the nation 's nuclear and ballistic missile programs .
Author says North Korean drug dealers are finding a ready market closer to home . North Korea official says as many as two - thirds of North Koreans have used methamphetamines . Author says interviewees told her the border regions of North Korea are awash with drugs . Interviewees say methamphetamines act as a palliative in place of other drugs .