<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>Lola (Langusta) <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>7:36 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"></TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>17788.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=DetaildTitleGolden vAlign=top>N Korea 'tests weapons on children'
</TD></TR><TR id=ctl00_cphBody_trAuthor><TD style="WIDTH: 553px" class=Byline>By Steve Chao in Seoul, South Korea
</TD></TR><TR><TD style="HEIGHT: 16px" class=DetailedSummary>
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</TD></TR><TR><TD align=middle>Analysts believe North Korea has one of the most aggressive biochemical weapons programmes</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
When Im Chun-yong made his daring escape from North Korea, with a handful of his special forces men, there were many reasons why the North Korean government was intent on stopping them. They were, after all, part of Kim Jong-il's elite commandos - privy to a wealth of military secrets and insights into the workings of the reclusive regime.
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width=170 align=right><TBODY><TR><TD class=MostActiveDescHeader bgColor=#b68809>In video</TD></TR><TR><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; FONT-FAMILY: verdana,geneva; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 8pt" class=MostActiveDescBody bgColor=#dfd2ad vAlign=top>Interview: North Korea weapons threat
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>But among the accounts they carried with them is one of the most shocking yet to emerge – namely the use of humans, specifically mentally or physically handicapped children, to test North Korea's biological and chemical weapons. "If you are born mentally or physically deficient, says Im, the government says your best contribution to society… is as a guinea pig for biological and chemical weapons testing."
Even after settling into the relative safety of South Korea, for 10 years Im held on to this secret, saying it was too horrific to recount.
But with Kim's health reportedly failing, and the country appearing increasingly unpredictable, Im felt it was time he spoke out.
Daughter given up
<TABLE style="HEIGHT: 92px" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width=170 align=right><TBODY><TR><TD class=MostActiveDescHeader bgColor=#b68809>In depth</TD></TR><TR><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; FONT-FAMILY: verdana,geneva; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 8pt" class=MostActiveDescBody bgColor=#dfd2ad vAlign=top>
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The former military captain says it was in the early 1990s, that he watched his then commander wrestle with giving up his 12-year-old daughter who was mentally ill. The commander, he says, initially resisted, but after mounting pressure from his military superiors, he gave in.
Im watched as the girl was taken away. She was never seen again.
One of Im's own men later gave him an eyewitness account of human-testing.
Asked to guard a secret facility on an island off North Korea's west coast, Im says the soldier saw a number of people forced into a glass chamber.
"Poisonous gas was injected in," Im says. "He watched doctors time how long it took for them to die."
Other North Korean defectors have long alleged that the secretive nation has been using political prisoners as experimental test subjects.
Some have detailed how inmates were shipped from various concentration camps to so-called chemical "factories".
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgVFM colSpan=2 align=middle>View Full Message</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
</TD></TR><TR id=ctl00_cphBody_trAuthor><TD style="WIDTH: 553px" class=Byline>By Steve Chao in Seoul, South Korea
</TD></TR><TR><TD style="HEIGHT: 16px" class=DetailedSummary>
<TABLE style="WIDTH: 33px; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
When Im Chun-yong made his daring escape from North Korea, with a handful of his special forces men, there were many reasons why the North Korean government was intent on stopping them. They were, after all, part of Kim Jong-il's elite commandos - privy to a wealth of military secrets and insights into the workings of the reclusive regime.
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width=170 align=right><TBODY><TR><TD class=MostActiveDescHeader bgColor=#b68809>In video</TD></TR><TR><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; FONT-FAMILY: verdana,geneva; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 8pt" class=MostActiveDescBody bgColor=#dfd2ad vAlign=top>Interview: North Korea weapons threat
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>But among the accounts they carried with them is one of the most shocking yet to emerge – namely the use of humans, specifically mentally or physically handicapped children, to test North Korea's biological and chemical weapons. "If you are born mentally or physically deficient, says Im, the government says your best contribution to society… is as a guinea pig for biological and chemical weapons testing."
Even after settling into the relative safety of South Korea, for 10 years Im held on to this secret, saying it was too horrific to recount.
But with Kim's health reportedly failing, and the country appearing increasingly unpredictable, Im felt it was time he spoke out.
Daughter given up
<TABLE style="HEIGHT: 92px" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width=170 align=right><TBODY><TR><TD class=MostActiveDescHeader bgColor=#b68809>In depth</TD></TR><TR><TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; FONT-FAMILY: verdana,geneva; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 8pt" class=MostActiveDescBody bgColor=#dfd2ad vAlign=top>
Videos
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The former military captain says it was in the early 1990s, that he watched his then commander wrestle with giving up his 12-year-old daughter who was mentally ill. The commander, he says, initially resisted, but after mounting pressure from his military superiors, he gave in.
Im watched as the girl was taken away. She was never seen again.
One of Im's own men later gave him an eyewitness account of human-testing.
Asked to guard a secret facility on an island off North Korea's west coast, Im says the soldier saw a number of people forced into a glass chamber.
"Poisonous gas was injected in," Im says. "He watched doctors time how long it took for them to die."
Other North Korean defectors have long alleged that the secretive nation has been using political prisoners as experimental test subjects.
Some have detailed how inmates were shipped from various concentration camps to so-called chemical "factories".
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgVFM colSpan=2 align=middle>View Full Message</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>