North Korea has turned to insurance fraud to get much-needed hard currency for its leaders, a defector says.

Kim Kwang Jin worked for Korea National Insurance Co., the state-owned institution that is North Korea's only insurer, The Washington Post reported Thursday. Kim, who defected to South Korea while working in Singapore, is spending a year working for a Washington human rights group.

The United States charges North Korea with engaging in large-scale crime, including counterfeiting money, cigarettes and prescription drugs.

In 2006, three reinsurance companies disputed a claim North Korea made for a helicopter crash, filing an appeal with a British court. But they reached an out-of-court settlement for $58 million before the case was resolved.

The same year, North Korea filed large claims for two train crashes and the sinking of a ferry. The country was short of hard currency at the time because the United States had frozen accounts in response to the alleged counterfeiting.

Kim said in 2003 he and his colleagues in Singapore sent Kim Jong IL, North Korea's "Dear Leader," a special birthday present. It was $20 million, packed into two bags and shipped by way of Beijing.