A North Korean man living in Australia claims that human flesh is served up to eat in the country's third largest city. Sung Min Jeong claims that in Chongjin -- a city on the tip of the North Korean coast -- a shopkeeper serves up human meat.Jeong's interpreter said, "One of his strongest thoughts is ... if he didn't take steps to leave North Korea, he would've become a North Korean who ate human flesh."
That thought is what drove Jeong to leave his homeland and to escape to Sydney in March 2011.
It is not the first time reports of cannibalism have emerged from the secretive state. Fears that North Koreans are being forced to eat human flesh increased earlier this year following claims a man was executed for murdering his two children for food.
A source said, "While his wife was away on business he killed his eldest daughter and, because his son saw what he had done, he killed his son as well. When the wife came home, he offered her food, saying: 'We have meat.' But his wife, suspicious, notified the Ministry of Public Security, which led to the discovery of part of their children's bodies under the eaves."
Fears of cannibalism surfaced in 2003 too, amid testimony from refugees who claimed poor harvests and sanctions had resulted in children being killed and corpses cut up for food. According to reports, requests by the UN World Food Program to access "farmers' markets" where human meat was believed to be traded, were turned down by Pyongyang, citing "security reasons".
Those caught selling human meat face execution, but one source told the North Korean Refugees Assistance Fund, "Pieces of 'special' meat are displayed on straw mats for sale. People know where they come from, but they don't talk about it."