CaliToday (08/10/2025): A harrowing new study has unveiled the devastating toll that decades of famine and economic collapse have taken on North Korea's wildlife, revealing that starving citizens have been forced to hunt and eat everything from badgers to critically endangered Siberian tigers to survive.
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| Mass hunting was driven by the collapse of the communist government’s state distribution system in the late 1990, according to researchers - KIM WON-JIN/AFP |
The research, conducted by a team of British and Norwegian scientists, paints a grim picture of an ecosystem on the brink of collapse. Based on rare testimony from defectors, it shows how a thriving black market for wild animal products emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union, threatening to wipe out vulnerable species and undermine international conservation efforts.
A Crisis Born from Collapse
The root of the crisis traces back to the 1990s. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, which had propped up its economy, North Korea’s state-run public distribution system crumbled. The country plunged into a catastrophic famine that is estimated to have killed between 600,000 and one million people. No longer able to rely on the state for food or medicine, the population turned to the wild.
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| North Korea borders an area of China where Siberian tigers are returning - Chi Shiyong/VCG/Getty Images |
"Almost every mammal species in North Korea, larger than a hedgehog, is being deliberately captured for consumption or trade," said Joshua Elves-Powell of University College London, a co-author of the four-year study published in the journal Biological Conservation. "Even strictly protected species are being trafficked, sometimes across the border to China."
Because North Korea is one of the world's most isolated and repressive nations, direct research is nearly impossible. Instead, the scientists interviewed 42 defectors in South Korea and the United Kingdom, including former soldiers, hunters, traders, and consumers, to piece together the tragic reality on the ground.
A Black Market for Survival and Profit
The interviews revealed a two-pronged black market. Locally, wild animal meat, from bears and otters to deer and a vulnerable wild goat known as the long-tailed goral, became a crucial source of food.
Simultaneously, an international trade developed. Smugglers trafficked animal parts across the border into China, where they are used in traditional medicine. Items like deer antlers and the organs, paws, and bile of bears were among the most frequently mentioned products. Shockingly, interviewees also reported the existence of state-run wildlife farms, which allegedly breed bears, deer, and otters specifically to harvest their parts for this illegal trade.
A Black Hole for Endangered Species
The study's most alarming finding concerns the threat to global conservation efforts. Critically endangered Siberian tigers and Amur leopards, which are making a fragile comeback in neighboring northeastern China, are among the animals being hunted in North Korea.
As China’s tiger population recovers and expands, these animals may cross the border into North Korea, where they face an almost certain death.
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| North Korea, ruled by Kim Jong Un, is one of the few countries not signed up to an international convention on endangered species - STR/KCNA VIA KNS/AFP |
"Our investigation suggests that tigers dispersing into North Korea are at risk of being killed for their body parts, which could negatively affect the region's recovering tiger population," the researchers warned.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that North Korea is one of the very few countries that has not signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the global agreement that regulates this trade. This makes the country a black hole for conservation, effectively sabotaging the painstaking work being done by its neighbors.
The study concludes with a dire warning: "There is clearly a severe risk that unsustainable wildlife exploitation in North Korea will have grave consequences, including the extinction of key animal populations and a hollowing out of North Korean wildlife."