A husband and wife in North Korea were caught attacking each other with knives in a busy street in the city of Hamhung, an incident that has drawn attention to the country's reported methamphetamine crisis.
Daily NK, a news outlet covering North Korean affairs from South Korea, reported that the confrontation was only broken up by a passing police officer. The pair, both believed to be in their 40s, are thought to have taken crystal meth, or 'ice', and reportedly began arguing over financial issues before the dispute turned physical and blades were drawn.
Witness account of the fight
An anonymous source told Daily NK that a terrified neighbour rushed into the couple's apartment to separate them but was unable to calm the pair, before a police officer intervened and shouted at them until they stopped fighting.
The source told Daily NK: "If it were an ordinary marital spat, breaking it up and leaving would have been fine. But there were traces of ice everywhere, and the only thing the officer did was yell until they stopped fighting."
Widespread drug use in Hamhung
The incident has reportedly sparked outrage among locals, although the source claimed such drug-fuelled chaos has become disturbingly commonplace. The source said: "Couples doing ice together and causing these fights happens so often in Hamhung. Unless somebody ends up dead, nobody even talks about it, and an ordinary couple's fight is just treated like background noise."
North Korea is reportedly battling a serious crystal meth epidemic despite strict laws against drug use. A 2016 US State Department report detailed how methamphetamine consumption had spread across society, including among students, factory workers and wealthy citizens. Hamhung has been specifically identified as a hotspot for the drug.
Broader impact of the epidemic
Some North Koreans have reportedly used crystal meth as medicine, while others have handed it out as gifts to government officials. The country has also been linked to international drug trafficking, with North Korean officials implicated in smuggling operations dating back to the 1970s.
