Wounded North Korea defector on road to recovery

The disease-riddled soldier shot several times while defecting from North Korea is on the road to recovery — thanks in part to a steady diet of Korean pop music and American TV, his doctors announced Wednesday.

“The patient will not die,” surgeon Lee Cook-jong of South Korea’s Ajou University Hospital said, according to the Korea Herald. “But he is showing signs of depression due to much stress from the gunshot injuries and two major surgeries. The Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences Department will do an assessment for post-traumatic stress disorder.”

The 24-year-old soldier has only been identified by his surname, Oh, the Yonhap news agency reported.

“To provide psychological stability a South Korean flag has been placed hanging on the hospital room wall,” a government official told the outlet.

And they’re also giving him South Korean pop music and American TV to lift his spirits.

“We played him three versions of Girls’ Generation’s ‘Gee’ — the original version, the rock version and the indie band version — and he said he likes the original version the best and that he loves girl groups,” Lee told Yonhap. “We showed him a cable TV movie channel, and he said he likes the American drama ‘CSI’ and American films.”

Dramatic video shot Nov. 13 shows Oh racing toward the border in a jeep, and then on foot as pursuing soldiers fire on him. He can be seen limping into South Korean territory before collapsing and being pulled to safety by southern border guards.

Oh was hit by bullets five times — in his right-side hip, shoulder and knee, as well as the left side of his back and shoulder, the Herald reported.

Doctors performed emergency surgery just 30 minutes after he was brought to them from the border village of Panmunjeom about 50 miles away. They conducted a second operation two days later.

The hospital is also treating him for hepatitis B, parasitic worms and tuberculosis.

Doctors discovered dozens of fully grown parasitic worms — some measuring more than 10 ½ inches long — inside the Oh’s ruptured small intestine, more proof of dismal conditions North Koreans must endure under dictator Kim Jong Un, according to Yonhap.

Oh will remain in an ICU at Ajou University Hospital for a few more days while authorities figure out where to put him next.

The soldier was able to breathe on his own after three days in South Korea’s care, but it will be another month before he’s recovered enough to be interrogated, the Herald reported, citing officials.

North Korea typically claims defections are actually kidnappings by South Koreans, but it has been silent on this escape and video showing the defector’s apparent desire to flee the regime.

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