Defecting North Korean soldier riddled with giant worms
“In my over-20-year-long career as a surgeon, I have only seen something like this in a textbook.”
A few days ago, a North Korean soldier fled across the border to South Korea in s hailstorm of bullets from his comrades.
The soldier was found on the south side of the border village of Panmunjom, about 50 meters south of the Military Demarcation Line, wounded in his shoulder and elbow, according to a South Korean defense ministry official.
He defected from a North Korean guard post nearby and was being treated in hospital.
“The defector was urgently transferred to hospital in a helicopter of the United Nations Command, and there was no exchange of fire with our side,” the ministry official told Reuters.
The soldier was shot five times, in the buttocks, armpit, back, shoulder and knee. Originally, it was thought these wounds were not life threatening. However, the current prognosis is more grim, as South Korean doctors have discovered that the man is severely malnourished and his body is riddled with worms.
Parasitic worms have been found in a North Korean soldier critically injured while defecting to South Korea, highlighting nutrition and hygiene problems that observers believe have plagued the isolated country for decades.
Dozens of flesh-coloured parasites, one of which was 27cm (11 inches) long, were found in the man’s digestive tract during life-saving operations, according to the lead surgeon, Lee Cook-jong.
“In my over-20-year-long career as a surgeon, I have only seen something like this in a textbook,” Lee said.
And while the solider may not be able to talk, his body offers some significant clues about the actual state of the North Korean army.
“Consider that, as a soldier, the man was among the elite of North Korea,” said military history expert and former Green Beret, Barry Jacobsen. “I suspect his parasite infection was the rule and not the exception, which leads me to believe that the North Korean military is really not able to wage any sort of war.”
If Kim Jong Un were counting on his nuclear weapons instead of relying on his soldiers, I suspect the collapse of the underground test site and the subsequent death 200 of his nuclear experts may have impeded those plans as well. I find it fascinating that not one test shot was lobbed while President Trump was in Asia.
Furthermore, the North Korean dictator may have caused the endemic parasite problem plaguing his military and the rest of his nation. After a chemical embargo stopped the flow of traditional fertilizers into his country, the use of human and animal waste was mandated.
The prevalence of parasitic worms causing health problems in North Korea may be the result of a personal intervention by Kim Jong Un, who urged farmers to spread human excrement on their fields to fertilize crops.
The hermit nation’s leader issued an instruction to farmers in 2014 telling them to use human faeces with animal waste and organic compost on their fields. With a lack of livestock to provide animal fertilizer, agriculturists poured the human excrement, also known as “night soil”, on their fields.
It will be interesting to see what direction President Trump, our military, and our Asian allies take in regards to North Korea in the next few weeks and months based on the recent developments.
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Comments
Perhaps that is how Kim Jong Un reproduces….
Leftists for sure!
Foreign Policy, Fox and various other ‘respectable’ outlets have been excreting long articles about how we could barely, just barely win a war with NK but they’d inflict horrible casualties.
That would most certainly be the case if said media were giving the orders.
Ah…..The worm turns…..as they say…….
There should have been return fire. Morale in NK is low, and if they knew there was personal risk involved in shooting their own comrades in the back, they’d be further behind cover and slower to open fire. They might later follow said comrade out.
I suspect those soldiers will be in prison or executed for failing to kill the escaping soldier. Communism on display in every dimension of this event.
Folks, this is Organic Farming. Using human and animal dung.
And, worms are actually one of the least dangerous side effects.
Right. For centuries, before the invention of modern chemicals, farming was detrimental to people’s health.
Actually, it was, but less detrimental than starvation. One reason life expectancies started growing is that modern fertilizers and weed killers allowed people to eat better while avoiding unhealthy practices.
I think the important difference between American “organic farming” and the fun, new North Korean version is the fact that there isn’t much livestock in Korea to use animal-based fertilizers. It is easier to catch disease from a fellow human being than an animal, which is a contributing factor to the hell in which the North Koreans find themselves.
Question :
Does properly cooking your food, washing the vegetables, prevent worm / tape worm infestations?
That depends on the particular worm/parasite. The most important preventative is washing your hands as often the parasite eggs are transferred hand to mouth. Vegetables are more likely to be contaminated with bacteria rather than parasites.
Isn’t NK one of the Communist Utopias loved by the left? This poor soldier should be the mascot of these University leftists.
Also, I am not sure but I think NK missiles have been silent since Trump’s “Rocket Man” label at the UN.
Those are good socialist worms and are the property of the DPRK. The soldier was stealing them to sell them to the capitalists who have a worm shortage.
Joe Kennedy is starting ‘Joe For Worms’ to provide low cost worms to needy Americans.
Beware!! This is how the left worms its way into power. Don’t get hooked. Tape at 11!
VaGentleman. I think you may be mistaken. These worms are traitors who hijacked a poor NK soldier so they could escape to a land of fat warm bodies.
It depends on whether the worms or the soldier are more valuable to the Fat Boy.
A video of a flight over Pyongyang, for those that have not seen it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPYxrmxOvcQ
Re: OleDirtyBarrister:
I watched and couldn’t see any telephone poles.
There’s no parking lots. Look at the stadium, not a parking lot near it. Look at the industrial areas – no parking lots. And no traffic on the roads.
Good grief Charlie Brown…. I’ve seen the same in patients in SoCal from foreign countries or from across the border… ascariasis, tape worms… considering the long list of diseases from the Middle East, this Korean doc is just a newbie and living a VERY sheltered life.
What do you expect from a poor hell hole like NK?
They just need to drink like the South Koreans…
The Korean problem has been multifaceted for decades.
The North has been a non-technological fourth world hellhole. It is right next to a modern, technological first world country. The last thing the leadership of SK wants to do is to assume control of the North. The economic drain would be staggering. This is one of the reasons why the Kims are still in control of the DPRK.
Now, practicing medicine in a first world country [SK] which, unlike the US, has almost no cross-border traffic with the cesspool next door, most SK doctors have never seen significant parasitic infestations. We only see them in the US among people from third world countries or among the homeless population.
Maybe we can borrow this surgeon to help excise the GOPe rats infesting Congress.
If there is a military conflict on the Korean peninsula instead of dropping bombs on the Norks we should drop K-Rats and march thru while they pig out.