In addition to its many other problems, North Korea has a growing drug problem, with an estimated 40 to 50 percent of the population in the country’s far north “seriously addicted” to crystal meth.

The figures, quoted in The Wall Street Journal, come from a scholarly journal edited by academics in South Korea and the United States that states North Korea is experiencing a “drug epidemic.”

If it’s true, we’re unlikely to hear about it from the North Korean government, which, except in those periodic episodes where its population is in danger of starving to death, insists that all is well.

However, the South Korean government, which can be relied on in these matters, says there’s a high rate of dependency and abuse, particularly with prescription sleeping medication, among North Korean defectors.

The meth epidemic, if that’s what it truly is, would be another example of an egregious North Korean agricultural plot gone slightly awry.

According to the Journal, throughout the 1990s, the regime of Kim Jong Il encouraged the growth of opium poppies for sale to foreign countries, particularly China. Inevitably, opium use began to spread among the North Korean population.

But the opium crop, like much else of North Korean agriculture, was wiped out by droughts. Somehow, crystal meth became the go-to drug for generating cash.

The export-level production of crystal meth would suggest government involvement simply because the chemicals involved are not readily available in North Korea.

That the Chinese would be party to the sale of crystal meth is puzzling because the Opium Wars of the mid-19th century are a sensitive chapter of Chinese history.

In any case, North Korean foreign policy is nutty enough without having to deal with people on a meth high.

— MetroWest Daily News of Framingham (Mass.)