MISO Against Crime?

Life has a way of being neither black nor white. We say that MISO are undertaken against a military force to support the CDR’s mission and intent. What about MISO against a hostile nation state’s criminal activities?

“5 extradited in plot to import North Korean meth to US” was the lead for an article appearing in the November 20, 2013 Washington Post. (See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/5-extradited-in-plot-to-import-north-korean-meth-to-us/2013/11/20/4a2a3840-5222-11e3-9e2c-e1d01116fd98_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines 

 which is also the photo source)

While I have been to the ROK several times, I am certainly not an expert on the drug trade there although I operate under the assumption that not much goes on in North Korea that the government doesn’t know about.

Assuming for the moment that the meth trade is a State Owned Enterprise (which it may not be of course, but for the sake of argument – bear with me), and both the US and the ROK feel it is in the interest of their mutual national security to thwart the drug operation, then is it appropriate for their respective militaries to engage in MISO to help achieve that goal?

While one could argue that this is more of a diplomatic matter and best handled by Public Diplomacy or some other army of the Department of State, are they the best equipped to accomplish this mission?

I would argue that MISO designed to discourage all facets of the drug operation are proper missions. The appropriate resources to address a North Korean audience are more likely to be a part of the two military MISO organizations. The nature of the cooperation between US MISO and Korean C2PSYOP would be a function of current operations and based on memorandums of agreement between the two countries Executive Branches.

Reader comments encouraged as always. For my American readers – Happy Thanksgiving.