ANorth Korean soldier was shotsix clip by his former comrades as he essay to make an escape through the Korean Demilitarized Zone and desert to the South . While recovering from his injuries in a South Korean infirmary , doctors let out his intestine were riddled with large and unusual leech , provide a rarefied insight into the nutriment , wellness , and everyday aliveness of North Koreans .
“ In my over 20 - year - longsighted life history as a operating surgeon , I have only find out something like this in a text edition , ” jumper lead surgeon Lee Cook - jong said in a press briefing on Wednesday , Reutersreports .
An article in theKorea Biomedical Review(KBR ) explain that the soldier undergo two rounds of operation at Ajou University hospital . The operations involved removing a heater lodged in the abdominal wall and deal the " enormous number " of parasites including roundworm in his intestine , the longest of which was was 27 cm ( 11 column inch ) .
“ We are struggle with handling as we found a large number of parasites in the soldier ’s venter , invading and feed into the spite areas , ” add Lee , according to KBR . “ We have also discovered a parasite never watch in Koreans before . It is make the situation worse and causing rattling complications . ”
The monumental infection is most in all likelihood tie in to the blue spirit level of hygienics find out in the hermit kingdom . The worm were most belike contracted by eating veggie fertilized with human feces , the Dr. consider . There are many manner to safely use manure to fertilize champaign , however , it appear that North Korea does n’t use these practices .
outside authorization , droughts , and black interior management meanfood shortage are a bountiful problemin North Korea . Up to 70 percentage of the population live on food aid and corrode a dangerously unvaried diet . Micronutrient lack , particularly in atomic number 26 , zinc , vitamin A , and iodine , are therefore coarse . Inside the soldier ’s intestine , they also find Indian corn , a staple caryopsis of the North Korean dieting .
In the D.P.R.K. , young men must serve compulsory military avail for 10 years and women for seven . A further 4 - 5 percent of North Korea ’s 24 million people serve on active military duty , and another 30 percent are assigned to a taciturnity or paramilitary unit , consort to theUS Office of Secretary of Defense . This mean the soldier ’s body is representative of many North Koreans and potentially insightful for investigator skip to learn about the extensive health of the country .
“ I do n’t cognize what is hap in North Korea , but I found many parasites when examining other defectors , ” tote up Professor Seo Min . “ In one compositor’s case , we discover 30 types of ringworm in a female defector . The parasite infection problem seems to be serious even if it does not lay out the entire North Korean population . ”
