N. Korea exports contaminated food supplements

By Yi Whan-woo

North Korean food supplements sold overseas are contaminated with excessive levels of heavy metals, sources familiar with the matter say.

The supplements include bear gallbladders and musk. They contain mercury, lead and other heavy metals up to 200,000 times above permissible levels for food and are mostly available at North Korea-run restaurants in foreign countries, including China.

"They can lead to serious health problems," a source said. "The Chinese know about the quality of the products so they do not buy them. It's the tourists other than Chinese who North Korea targets as customers."

A source said "Noishim Sahyang," a product made from Siberian musk deer, contained 49 times the standard level of mercury, three times the level of arsenic, and five times the level of lead, even though the product was intended to help cure various ailments.

Another source said a product named "North Korean Bear Gall Bladder" was promoted as if it was good for the liver. But it actually contained no traces of ursodiol and had actually been made from pig gall bladders.

This is not the first time that North Korean food supplements have been found to contain hazardous ingredients.

In 2016, South Korean health authorities found that of 10 of 13 North Korean food supplements had higher-than-permitted levels of heavy metals.

In 2014, Vietnamese health authorities cited health risks for pulling a supplement named "Angung Uhwang Hwan" off the shelves.

Pyongyang still claimed the product helped treat stomach and blood pressure problems.

A source speculated that North Korea was exporting the supplements to earn cash amid international sanctions over the regime's nuclear program.

Sources also speculated that North Korean authorities were believed to be involved in producing the supplements.

In April 2011, former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visited the Kanggye Koryo Medicine Factory, which produced mainly dietary supplements.

The Korean Central News Agency then quoted Kim as saying, "All the Koryo medicines produced by the factory should be good to take and are highly efficacious."

Some sources said Pyongyang mobilized overseas workers to market the supplements.