"North Korea warehouses triplets

By Michael Sheridan / The Sunday Times

London - All baby triplets in North Korea are being removed from their parents and
placed in bleak state orphanages where they are fed by foreign aid.

The policy has prompted concern among diplomats and aid officials, who have
witnessed sets of babies kept in special "triplet rooms" in orphanages across the
country.

"There is no doubt that the policy is compulsory and universal," said a seasoned
diplomatic visitor to North Korea who has seen the rooms. He said he had not noticed
family members visiting the children in his many calls at the orphanages. Conditions
when foreigners are allowed to enter appear to be spartan but clean, according to
several witnesses.

Food supplies to orphanages are a priority for both the United Nations relief agencies
and the North Korean authorities. Local officials have assured inquirers that the
babies are being given privileges to relieve their parents of the anxiety of feeding
three mouths while the impoverished Stalinist nation endures an eighth year of food
shortages.

But diplomatic experts who understand the Korean language and culture cast doubt on
the official explanation.

They believe the true reason is linked to some of the most bizarre aspects of Kim
Jong-il's dictatorship. The number three is auspicious in Korean mysticism and
triplets are revered for exceptional good fortune. Some believe they may be destined
for power and great achievements, which would account for the regime's desire to
keep them under observation.

Diplomats and international aid officials also doubt that poverty is the explanation,
because not even triplets born to high-ranking party members are exempt. "It may be
officially atheistic and Stalinist but essentially North Korea operates a state religion
infused with superstition, astrology and a personality cult which glorifies Kim as a
unique individual," said the veteran diplomat. "You don't take any chances with rivals
in that system."

Power conferred by blood descent is also important in Korea's ancestral Confucian

tradition. The North Korean capital, Pyongyang, was rebuilt by its communist rulers
along principles of Chinese geomancy, with "power lines" linking the purported
birthplace of the previous dictator, Kim Il-sung, with the purported tomb of Tangun,
founder of the Korean race. As heir to the world's only communist dynasty, the
younger Kim exploits every such tradition to exalt himself, while keeping a careful
watch on his clan network of intermarried army and party men.

Children of the elite are usually taken from their parents by the age of two and placed
in party-controlled schools to break the bonds of family loyalty and to consecrate their
devotion to Kim. Foreign observers believe the triplets are kept together and
transferred to these schools when old enough.

North Korea's segregation of triplets has provoked an internal debate among UN aid
agencies and non-governmental organizations delivering help to the country.

Although there appear to be no reasons to fear for the physical safety of the triplets,
regular visitors to North Korean orphanages report desperate scenes of isolation and
sadness.

On a recent visit a member of a foreign delegation entered a room to see infants

placed several to a cot, all rocking backwards and forwards.

"Our people were stunned into silence," the delegate said. A pediatrician outside
North Korea who assessed evidence collected on the visit diagnosed severe emotional
trauma.

Witnesses said they had noticed better nursing attention and care for triplets in the
special rooms. "But none of those infants knows what affection is," said one visitor.
"Our staff try to cuddle them for a few minutes but then, of course, we have to leave."

Up to 300 sets of triplets a year are believed to be born in North Korea. In an official
statement to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, North Korea said:
"Triplets are supplied by the state free of charge with clothing, bedding, a one-year
supply of dairy products and a preschool subsidy, and special medical workers take
charge of such mothers and children and care for their health." The UN's World Food
Program has reported a sharp improvement in children's health in North Korea thanks
to foreign aid. Since 1998 cases of acute malnutrition in children under seven have
fallen from 16 per cent to nine per cent, and the number of underweight children has
decreased from 61 per cent to 21 per cent .

As tension mounts between North Korea and the United States over Pyongyang's
nuclear program, however, aid officials fear that any military clash could put at risk
their ability to feed the children.

There is little doubt of the regime's cold-hearted approach to pediatrics. In 1998,

Medecins sans Frontieres pulled out of North Korea, alleging that aid agencies were
denied access to so-called 9-27 camps in which sick and disabled children had been
dumped under a decree issued by Kim to "normalize" the country.

The UN agencies are still arguing for access to closed districts in the northeast of the
country, where prison camps and sensitive military facilities are located.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has said America will send 36,000 tonnes of aid
this year but will deliver a further 54,000 tonnes only if North Korea improves access
and monitoring for the food program. The prospects for that look as bleak as an
orphanage in winter. "