North Korean authorities have arrested workers at an orphanage where seven infants died earlier this year after investigators found that caregivers “systematically stole” food supplies the government had provided for infants and toddlers, a provincial health official said.
When an outbreak of a coronavirus-like disease left seven children dead in February at an orphanage in Hyesan city, party officials in northern Ryanggang province began an investigation into how the orphanage was being run, a provincial resident told Radio Free Asia.
“They found that the children’s nutritional conditions were serious and ordered a judicial agency to investigate,” said the resident, who requested anonymity for personal safety.
“During that investigation, mismanagement of children began to be revealed one by one,” he said. “As a result, the investigation was expanded to include all orphan care facilities.”
They found that infants and toddlers at the Hyesan orphanage were fed a difficult-to-digest concoction of corn flour and sugar instead of milk, the resident said.
Residents of the province are shocked that babies were fed this combination – and they’re angered by the deaths, he said.
“They fed the powder to breastfeeding-age infants. Children less than a year old were fed corn porridge,” he said. “Even adults have difficulty digesting that.”
Investigators also found that caregivers had taken rice, sugar, cooking oil and flour, and had regularly bribed supply officials, the resident said. North Korea regularly suffers from food shortages.
Judicial provincial authorities detained the heads of the accounting department and the medical department at the center on April 27, the provincial health official said. Four nutritionists at the center were also arrested, and the number of arrests is expected to increase, the resident said.
The director of the orphanage and the orphanage’s party secretary haven’t been arrested, the resident added.
Since 2015, North Korea has built childcare centers and orphanages in every provincial capital, Pyongyang and several other cities. Some of the centers focus on newborns to 3-year-olds, while others are designated for children between 3 and 6 years old.
“From the first day of operation, childcare centers and orphanages had many problems due to poor nutrition management for children,” said the provincial health official, who also requested anonymity for personal safety.
“In 2021, Kim Jong Un ordered that those children be fed dairy products – and nutritional care for orphans greatly improved,” the official said.
Milk from farm cows in each province is supplied to children in orphanages, he said. The centers also receive regular shipments of rice powder and sugar, which are used to make rice porridge.
Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Moon Sung Hui for RFA Korean.
By Moon Sung Hui for RFA Korean | Radio Free (2024-05-08T00:59:17+00:00) After 7 infants die in North Korean orphanage, workers arrested for stealing food. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2024/05/08/after-7-infants-die-in-north-korean-orphanage-workers-arrested-for-stealing-food/
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