NORTH KOREA ACCUSED OF DRUG SMUGGLING.

A Russian military intelligence official charged on November 13 that North Korea, in an effort to stave off an impending economic crisis, is smuggling illegal drugs through Russia’s Far East. The official claimed that Pyongyang uses North Korean timber workers to move the narcotics. The official’s remarks followed claims by a North Korean defector that the government in Pyongyang is secretly running poppy farms to produce the opium used in the drug trafficking. (Itar-Tass, November 14)

Chechen Side Will Not Sign Draft Agreement.