NIS joins 9 Asia-Pacific nations to strike at drug networks' roots

South Korea's National Intelligence Service is joining forces with intelligence and investigative agencies from nine Asia-Pacific nations to combat drug crimes. With Australia and Japan participating for the first time in what had been a Southeast Asia-focused cooperation body, the network is expanding into a transnational crime response framework covering the entire Asia-Pacific region.

The NIS's Transnational Crime Intelligence Center said Monday it will hold the third general assembly of the Asia Drug Intelligence Cooperation with nine major Asia-Pacific nations in Busan on Tuesday to discuss countermeasures against drug crimes.

The Asia Drug Intelligence Cooperation was launched in 2024 under NIS leadership as an international intelligence-sharing body through which Asia-Pacific intelligence and investigative agencies exchange information on drug crimes and jointly trace distribution networks. Tuesday's assembly is the third, following the first in February 2024 and the second in September 2025.

This year's assembly will be attended for the first time by Australia and Japan as observer nations, joining the seven Southeast Asian member states — Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. The NIS said the two countries' participation has expanded the body's reach beyond Southeast Asia to encompass East Asia and the Pacific, making it a joint transnational crime response framework.

Cooperation through the body has already produced concrete results. A notable example was the arrest in Southeast Asia of members of a criminal organization — including the ringleader behind last year's widely condemned torture and murder of a South Korean university student.

In March, South Korea secured the extradition of drug kingpin Park Wang-yeol with active cooperation from Philippine authorities. In June, a joint operation with Thailand struck at the source — targeting a storage base owned by a major drug supplier and seizing the entire stockpile of 49.98 metric tons of drug precursor materials found there.

The scope of cooperation is also broadening from drugs to international crime more generally. The body has contributed to tracking scam organizations based in Southeast Asia and to the launch of a "Korea-dedicated task force" in Cambodia, cementing its standing as an international cooperation platform.

At Tuesday's assembly, the NIS plans to share results achieved so far and discuss the body's future direction. Multilateral and bilateral sessions on drug crime countermeasures will also be held to further deepen intelligence cooperation.

"Drug crimes that threaten public safety are like a hydra — cut off one head and two grow back," an official at the NIS Transnational Crime Intelligence Center said. "Striking at the source is the fundamental solution, and the Asia Drug Intelligence Cooperation is playing that central role." The official added that the NIS would continue to strengthen cooperation with countries around the world through the body to build a South Korea safe from transnational crime.