SEOUL — Parasitic worms found in a North Korean soldier who was critically injured during a desperate defection highlight nutrition and hygiene problems…
SEOUL — Parasitic worms found in a North Korean soldier who was critically injured during a desperate defection highlight nutrition and hygiene problems that experts say have plagued the isolated country for decades.
At a briefing Wednesday, lead surgeon Lee Cook-jong displayed photos showing dozens of flesh-colored parasites — including one 10.6 inches long — removed from the wounded soldier’s digestive tract during a series of surgeries to save his life.
“In my over 20-year-long career as a surgeon, I have only seen something like this in a textbook,” Lee said.
The parasites, along with kernels of corn in his stomach, may confirm what many experts and previous defectors have described as the food and hygiene situation for many North Koreans.
“Although we do not have solid figures showing health conditions of North Korea, medical experts assume that parasite infection problems and serious health issues have been prevalent in the country,” said Choi Min-Ho, a professor at Seoul National University College of Medicine who specializes in parasites.
The soldier’s condition was “not surprising at all considering the North’s hygiene and parasite problems,” he said.
The soldier was flown by helicopter to a hospital Monday after his dramatic escape to South Korea in a hail of bullets fired by North Korean soldiers.
He is believed to be an army staff sergeant in his mid-20s who was stationed in the Joint Security Area in the United Nations truce village of Panmunjom, according to Kim Byung-kee, a lawmaker of South Korea’s ruling party, briefed by the National Intelligence Service.
North Korea has not commented on the defection.
While the contents of the soldier’s stomach don’t necessarily reflect the population as a whole, his status as a soldier — with an elite assignment — would indicate he would at least be as well nourished as an average North Korean.
He was shot in his buttocks, armpit, back, shoulder and knee, among other wounds, according to the hospital where the soldier is being treated.
