The prevalence of parasitic worms causing health problems in North Korea may be the result of a personal intervention by Kim Jong Un, who urged farmers to spread human excrement on their fields to fertilize crops.

The hermit nation’s leader issued an instruction to farmers in 2014 telling them to use human faeces with animal waste and organic compost on their fields. With a lack of livestock to provide animal fertilizer, agriculturists poured the human excrement, also known as “night soil”, on their fields.

Related: North Korea Has Been Trying To Help Syria’s Assad Build His Chemical Weapons Program

Trending: Liverpool Injury News: Jurgen Klopp Sweats Over Injury Worries Ahead of Southampton Game

Kim’s pronouncement further precipitated the falsehood in North Korea that human waste was the best fertilizer for crops despite the dangerous parasites and worms found within in it, Reuters reported.

The nutrition and widespread health problems that blight North Korea have been highlighted by one North Korean soldier who has recently defected to the south. The army sergeant was found to have dozens of flesh colored parasites in his digestive tract, one of which measured 10.6 inches in length.

RTSNHGX

(KCNA)

Don't miss: Did Hillary Clinton Help Bill Clinton Intimidate and Discredit His Rape and Sexual Misconduct Accusers?

“In my over 20 year-long career as a surgeon, I have only seen something like this in a textbook,” the lead doctor working on the case, Lee Cook-jong, said.

The huge parasites, along with the contents of the soldier’s stomach, have confirmed the lamentable state of of the North Korean diet. “Although we do not have solid figures showing health conditions of North Korea, medical experts assume that parasite infection problems and serious health issues have been prevalent in the country,” said Choi Min-Ho, a professor at Seoul National University College of Medicine, who specializes in parasites.

Story continues

The soldier, who has not been identified but is reportedly in his mid-20s, was flown to hospital on Monday after being shot several times while making his escape to South Korea. He was hit in the buttocks, his armpit the back of his shoulder and his knee as he was struck by a hail of bullets from his former North Korean comrades.

Most popular: Pacific Threat: 80 Percent of Fish Set to Be Wiped Out as Ocean Temperatures Surge

North Korea’s state spending on food and public amenities like electricity have long been dwarfed by its military spending.

The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (DCNKHR) has outlined how North Korea spends 20 per cent of its annual GDP on the military despite the lack of adequate food.

In the past year, Pyongyang has increased the rate of its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons tests to warnings from the international community and the United States.

In September North Korea carried out its sixth nuclear weapons test. The government claimed it had exploded a hydrogen bomb capable of being mounted onto an intercontinental ballistic missile.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek