Shocking images show 10-inch parasites found inside North Korean defector
WARNING – GRAPHIC CONTENT: Disturbing images have been released showing enormous 10-inch parasites removed from a North Korean soldier after he defected to the south.
Oh Chong Song dashed across the border at the Panmunjom truce village on Monday, as former comrades from the North opened fire, 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.
Oh was rushed to hospital in South Korea by helicopter where he has undergone two rounds of emergency surgery, however the doctors were astonished by what they found.
His vital signs were so unstable, he was dying of low blood pressure, he was dying of shock,” Dr Lee Cook-Jong revealed.
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"He was like a broken jar. We couldn't put enough blood into him."
"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.
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.
They were also common in South Korea until the 1980s when the country developed, grew wealthier and the use of commercial fertilisers became widespread.
It is very rare for troops to defect at Panmunjom, a major tourist attraction and the only part of the border where forces from the two sides come face-to-face.
