The "Sopranos State"

For those that have not been following the illegal activities of North Korea very closely, TIME magazine has a good article titled the "Sopranos State" that clearly lays out the wide range of criminal enterprises being masterminded by the regime in Pyongyang.  This last paragraph in the article pretty much sums up the current US policy to dealing with the criminal activities of North Korea:

So what can the U.S. and its allies do? As a start, Asher and others argue that Washington could lean more on China and South Korea to beef up their surveillance and interdiction of suspect ships coming out of North Korean ports–which over the long term could dissuade Kim & Co. from pursuing its Sopranos-state operations. But that would take time, and right now the U.S. appears focused on getting a nuclear deal out of Pyongyang, no matter what sort of activities it might have to overlook in the process. For Kim and his cronies in Bureau 39, that means business is only going to get better.

As long as the regime is allowed to make money through illegal means Kim Jong-il’s policy of Strategic Disengagement appears to be more likely. 

I highly recommend reading OFK’s take on how "Law Enforcement Will Be Compromised".