How does North Korea finance a nuclear weapons program? | DW Documentary

How is it possible that North Korea can finance a nuclear weapons program? One of the poorest countries in the world is even able to worry the United States with its nuclear arsenal. The answer lies in the criminal activities of "Office 39".

The organization "Office 39" is a secret division of the government. Its goal is to obtain foreign currency by any means possible, providing Kim Jong Un’s totalitarian regime with financial resources. Drugs, counterfeit money, human trafficking, insurance fraud: nothing is off-limits for these North Korean gangsters. This documentary reveals their most spectacular schemes, and lays bare the sensational methods that have allowed the isolated country to circumvent UN sanctions and build up its nuclear program over a period of decades.