Theodore de Bry
At the source of medical cannibalism, North Korea’s only known serial killer.
/!\ No publicly known photos exist in this criminal case.
Netflix
Cannibalism is considered in our modern era as a deviation of human behavior, indulging in the most shocking practices for one’s own personal gain. Many famous killers have entered popular folklore, with films, series, and documentaries constantly being released about them, such as “DAHMER” on Netflix in 2022, which deals with the story of JEFFREY DAHMER, considered one of the most notorious murderers in the United States. Korea took several decades to go from a poor country to one of the greatest world powers, so it seems normal that no murderer has managed to enter the pantheon of humanity’s worst criminals. However, in the North, beyond the border, an unprecedented story has had a resounding impact throughout Korea. Discover today PARK MYUNGSIK, the liver collector of North Korea.
PARK MYUNGSIK. This name is probably unfamiliar to you, but it represents the only known serial killer in North Korea to date. Considering the strong control of the media in this unique country, little information is available on this subject, echoing the KSIS article from last month. Once again, we discover the extent to which an individual is ready to do anything to save himself from situations that seem hopeless to him, in this case, illness. Our protagonist, PARK MYUNGSIK was born in 1951, when the Korean War was raging on the peninsula (1950-1953). Living in the port city of Sinpo in the North, on the shores of the Sea of Japan, he witnessed the collapse of the USSR in 1990, just one year before its dissolution.
North Korea’s main economic supporter withdrew, and the country, which was already in a state of extreme famine, found itself in dire straits. PARK, 39 at the time of the incident, was a factory worker who tried by all means to obtain a cure for the disease that had been weakening him for several years: cirrhosis. This disease is characterized by diffuse and irreversible liver damage, often resulting from excessive alcohol consumption. Although the causes of PARK’s disease are unknown, it is believed to have caused hepatocellular insufficiency, hypertension, and severe fatigue.
He therefore decides to go to a renowned doctor in the city of Hamhung, the second largest in the North. Aware of his short life expectancy, between 15 and 20 years if the disease does not stabilize, he religiously follows his doctor’s treatment, until the latter tells him that it has no effect on him. Sinking into depression, it is with hope that one day he hears one of his close work colleagues talk about a shaman and his extraordinary abilities. He then seizes this opportunity to ask him for more details, until he gets an appointment with the fortune teller.
In North Korea, all forms of religious practice are expressly forbidden, so it is important that the meeting takes place in secret, in a place kept away from prying eyes. PARK then threw himself on his knees before the shaman, begging her to find a way to save his life. Knowing that he was doomed without her help, he would be ready to do anything to heal, everything. After asking him for a few days to think about it, it was during their second meeting that she instructed him to find a fresh liver, from a young human…
« I don’t know when I’m going to die, but please tell me how to live ! » – PARK MYUNGSIK
After this encounter had shaken him, he thought for only a few days before taking action. He began to meticulously plan his first murder, targeting middle and high school students. To combat the famine in the North, students were regularly sent to farms to help with manual labor, and slept there in dormitories that were often unsupervised. Waiting for the perfect opportunity, PARK set out to find his first victim in April 1990, his choice falling on a 15-year-old girl. Entering one of the dormitories one night, he climbed onto the teenager’s bed, placed his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams, and stabbed her, hitting her vital organs. Losing consciousness, she could not fight back and was dragged from the dormitory by PARK who went to the farmyard.
Surprised by a dog that started to bark, the young assassin fled when he saw lights in the distance coming in his direction. Disappointed that he did not have time to take the liver of the student, he decided to repeat a few more days, also in a farm, and managed to recover the organ so much coveted that he consumed directly thinking himself on the path of healing. The day after this second murder, a farmer who discovered the body fainted, reflecting the violence of the dissection on the abdomen of the girl. PARK then thought that the security of the dormitories would be strengthened, and chose to change the location to commit his next murder.
The man broke into a 20-year-old woman’s house one evening, and after she had stabbed her too, took out her liver still hot and ate it. So, between April and September, in just six months, he killed ten people who, with the exception of this victim, were all between 13 and 17 years old. At that time, there was no national fingerprint database in North Korea, nor were there any technologies for comparing DNA. Finding the killer was therefore a very complicated task, especially since the different regions of the country did not communicate with each other to know the progress of the case. It was after the tenth murder that local radio began to talk about this mysterious serial killer of unprecedented violence. Yet, because of the famine in the country, it was not uncommon to hear about murder cases.
Alerted to the dangers, villagers began to be vigilant, prohibiting their child from going out at night without supervision. Despite this, PARK managed to kill two other people, and it was when he attacked a thirteenth girl that the villagers, hearing her cries, rushed to help him and stop the criminal. Thanks to the mutual help between villagers, PARK was delivered to the police in October 1990, where he immediately confessed his crimes. Hoping to minimize his sentence, he even denounced the shaman and led the police to meet her, the woman also being arrested for illegal religious practice. At the trial, one year later in October 1991, PARK was found guilty of twelve murders and one attempted murder.
Sentenced to death, he was sent to the firing squad, dying in front of the public. The shaman was sentenced to 15 years in a labour camp and released in 2006, when she was deported to another region of North Korea, not without being beaten and wounded during her incarceration. This is when the case begins to surface again, despite the fact that South Korean radio stations on the border picked up announcements on local radio stations about the trial in 1991. In addition, the North Korean media outlet Daily NK published an article in 2006 to revisit the events that had shocked the country before.
An anti-government group in the north called New Joseon said that of 564 people sentenced to death between 2011 and 2013, 53, or 9.4%, were for cannibalism. However, the government denies the basis of the document that states these numbers. It is not uncommon in both North and South Korea to see cases of liver consumption, because in shamanism the liver is considered an organ for healing many diseases. A South Korean criminal case called “frog boys” related to the disappearance of children between 9 and 13 years old in 1991 even explored this trail of organ trafficking or shamanic rituals. This issue will be the subject of the next KSIS so stay tuned!
⊗ Focus on medical cannibalism ⊗
Cannibalism for medical virtue is not a rare practice. In fact, in Europe it was very popular for treating certain diseases, consuming especially the fat, muscles and blood of young and beautiful individuals. France’s King Charles II was said to have received human skull drops as a treatment in the 1680s. In a 2021 French BBC article, RICHARD SUGG writes:
« The idea that blood could cure epilepsy was supported by the highest medical authorities in Europe. »
At the same time, author THOMAS FULLER called mummified human bodies «good medicine but bad food». In the same article, it is reported that until the middle of the 18th century, English doctors recommended drinking warm blood to cure epilepsy, whether human or bird blood. In the collective imagination of doctors at that time, in order to obtain the optimal conditions for consuming a corpse, it had to be dead either by drowning, suffocation or strangulation, so that the blood did not leave the body and was not contaminated in the open air. Also, consuming a virgin’s body would have more significant effects, which would explain why shamans would recommend harvesting organs from children.
It is not uncommon that the body is still used today for personal consumption or business, with the multiplication of many cases of human trafficking, whether sexual or for organs. The commercialization of bodies continues to grow on the black market, with countries becoming notorious in this area, especially in Asia such as Thailand, India, Nepal or China. Some tribes also practice anthropophagous funerary rites where it is recognized that the consumption of parts of corpses is more or less dangerous. The brain and viscera would be more harmful than the muscles. For other famous cannibal killers, the act of eating a human would have a sexual aspect, as demonstrated by the shocking case of LUKA MAGNOTTA who after having sex, killed, cut and consumed his victim, all live streaming in 2012.
This criminal case represented by PARK MYUNGSIK demonstrates once again how far the human being’s excesses, and its excess in situations that may seem desperate to some, can go.
Journalist : Pillet Anaïs
Photos : Under pictures
Sources : KSTATION TV
