New satellite imagery shows most prisoner housing in Yodok Camp No. 15 is demolished, deteriorated or uninhabited. Administrative/security infrastructure mostly unchanged so far. More here (but imagery dates are wrong): https://t.co/AqjvuUbxlrpic.twitter.com/joxU6900Sa
A medical professional describes the worms found inside the body of the North Korean soldier who underwent surgery at a hospital in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on Nov. 15, 2017. The soldier suffered serious injuries from being shot by North Korean soldiers while defecting to South Korea through the truce village of Panmunjom the previous day. (Yonhap)
As much as I don’t like Kim Jong-un I don’t think it is fair to blame him for a parasite epidemic when it wasn’t too long ago when South Koreans were doing the same thing and having the same problems:
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.
Kim’s pronouncement further precipitated the falsehood in North Korea that human waste was the best fertilizer for crops despite the dangerous parasites and worms found within in it, Reuters reported.
The nutrition and widespread health problems that blight North Korea have been highlighted by one North Korean soldier who has recently defected to the south. The army sergeant was found to have dozens of flesh colored parasites in his digestive tract, one of which measured 10.6 inches in length. [Newsweek]
You can read the rest at the link, but I can remember about 20 years ago I was out near the Imjim River in South Korea during a military training exercise. From my Bradley Fight Vehicle we could see this old Korean woman in the distance walk into a rice paddy pull her pants down, squat, and take a dump right there in the field. And no she did not wipe afterwards. Seeing that made me laugh nearly as hard as when I was flashed by a Korean transvestite while driving in a HMMWV in Dongducheon.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un drives a tractor while touring a factory. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the story on Nov. 15, 2017, without elaborating on the timing of the visit. (Yonhap)
This is pretty disgusting that the North Korean soldier that defected to South Korea recently through the Joint Security Area had an 11-inch worm pulled out of his intestine:
A North Korean soldier shot multiple times while defecting to the South is in a stable condition but riddled with parasites that could complicate his chances of survival, his doctor said Thursday.
The soldier dashed across the border at the Panmunjom truce village on Monday, as former comrades from the North opened fire on him, hitting him at least four times.
He was pulled to safety by three South Korean soldiers who crawled to reach him, just south of the dividing line.
The young man was rushed to hospital in South Korea by helicopter where he has undergone two rounds of emergency surgery.
“Vital signs including his pulse are returning to stability”, attending doctor Lee Cook-Jong told journalists.
However, he warned, the un-named soldier could rapidly deteriorate at any moment.
“We’re paying close attention to prevent possible complications,” said Lee, who on Wednesday said “an enormous number of parasites” including roundworms had been found in the small intestine.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my 20 years as a physician”, he said, adding the longest worm he removed was 27 centimetres (11 inches).
Parasites, especially roundworms, are widespread in North Korea — as they are in many developing countries — where people eat uncooked vegetables that have been fertilised with human faeces, experts say. [AFP]
As I have said before from the Chinese perspective a freeze deal between the US and North Korea is in their interests. Freezing US-ROK joint military exercises is a way to reduce military readiness and push forward the long term goal of separating the ROK from the US:
China reiterated on Thursday that the most reasonable way to resolve North Korea’s nuclear stalemate is to push for a stop to joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S. in exchange for freezing Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile provocations.
“China sees the freeze-for-freeze scheme is the most reasonable way,” Geng Shuang, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, told a regular press briefing.
He made the remarks in response to what U.S. President Donald Trump earlier said.
Explaining the outcome of his 12-day Asia trip that also included a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Trump said on Wednesday (Washington time) that the two leaders agreed that they “would not accept” the freeze for freeze agreement, “like those that have consistently failed in the past.”
The spokesman said stopping the joint military exercises and provocations at the same time is the “first step” necessary to create an environment for talks and called for other countries to “actively” consider the method that China had proposed. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the whole dispute over the US deployment of the THAAD battery to South Korea is just another front in China’s long term effort to separate the US and the ROK.
Here we go again with more talk of a freeze deal with North Korea where the international community rewards North Korea for violating United Nations sanctions and receive little to nothing in return:
South Korea President Moon Jae-in (R) speaks in a press conference for South Korean journalists at a hotel in Manila, the Philippines on Nov. 14, 2017 on the outcome of his participation in the ASEAN forum. (Yonhap)
South Korea and the international community may begin discussions on possible rewards for North Korea if the reclusive state decides to at least freeze its nuclear program and come to the denuclearization dialogue, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday.
“I believe it will not be easy realistically to move on to complete dismantlement of North Korean nukes in the near future, considering recent advances in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs,” the president said at a press conference.
“That means it will likely be North Korea first freezing its nuclear program and then moving onto complete dismantlement, and if that happens, I believe we and the international community may discuss what we can do in return,” he added.
The South Korean president was attending a regional forum hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Manila. He arrived here Sunday following trips to Indonesia and Vietnam. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but President Moon is also once again urging the North Koreans to take part in the Winter Olympics being held this upcoming February in South Korea.
I would love it if some journalist would ask President Moon if he would have advocated for Apartheid South Africa to participate in the Olympic Games? Apartheid South Africa was shunned from the Olympics and they were not a threat to world peace or have any where near the level of human rights violations going in North Korea right now.
