After several high-profile busts of methamphetamine shipments and $100 “supernote” trade in the mid-2000s, North Korea appears to have cleaned up its act. This is not necessarily because North Korea is no longer involved in illicit activities, but more likely because it has diversified into new areas, said Sheena Chestnut Greitens, an expert on North Korea’s illicit activities.

“They’re highly creative and highly adaptable. They’re always developing new layers of business,” said Greitens, who is affiliated with the Brookings Institution [and the University of Missouri]. “If one of their businesses gets busted, they’ve already been testing others.” By experimenting with new money-making schemes, North Korea has been able to skirt new layers of sanctions aimed at cutting off its ability to finance its nuclear and missile programs.

… “If [the North Korean Viagra] works, and even if they’re only selling it across the border to China, that could be very appealing to Chinese consumers,” Greitens said. Chinese consumers have been known to flock to all sorts of purportedly aphrodisiac products, from ginseng and caterpillar fungus to deer or ox penis.

While each area of business in itself won’t solve North Korea’s economic problems, together they added up.  “It’s by having this cluster of activities and abilities that has helped them as sanctions have been applied,” Greitens said. “With the newest round of sanctions, my guess is that they’re doing the same thing: looking for ways to navigate around them.”