What the horrific parasites infesting a defector’s stomach tell us about North Korea
The squirming contents of the soldier’s stomach suggest a chronic shortage of modern fertiliser in North Korea – and a reliance on an unhealthy alternative
The North Korean defector had sped across the demilitarised zone in a stolen jeep, then crawled south as the men who had been his comrades moments ago shot at him with handguns and AK-47 rifles.
South Korean soldiers found the defector under a pile of leaves, bleeding from at least five gunshot wounds.
He was brought to doctors, who expected to find the soldier in bad shape. But what they also found when they opened him up gave the world a glimpse into just how bad things are in North Korea.
“I spent more than 20 years of experience as a surgeon, but I have not found parasites this big in the intestines of South Koreans,” Lee Cook-jong, who leads the team treating the soldier, told the Associated Press.