The figures were unveiled after a report published a day earlier in Japan's Sankei Shimbun that in order to gain foreign currency reserves, North Korea has 10 factories manufacturing counterfeit Japanese cigarettes and is smuggling them into Taiwan.

In the past, a major source of North Korea's foreign reserves came from amphetamine production, according to the report.

However, due to heavy crackdowns on the drug in many countries, two of the three amphetamine factories in North Korea have shut down, the report said, noting that North Korea has switched to producing counterfeit cigarettes. These cigarette factories help North Korea earn foreign reserves worth between US$500 million and US$700 million annually, according to the report.

Taiwan is the largest market for the North Korean counterfeit cigarettes, the report said.