A source from South Hamgyŏng Province even says about a sharp increase in this practice. If previously every twentieth person sold blood, now this number was to increase even tenfold. It is a picture of a crisis that is beginning to threaten people's physical survival.
The scheme is simple and cruel. For a single donation of 400 milliliters of blood, you can receive 3 kg of rice (or approximately 2 kg of cooking oil). These are the portions that barely enough to feed a family of three for two or three days at most. “If people sell their own blood for a few kilograms of rice, it is easy to guess what conditions they live in,” says a source quoted by Daily NK.
In Hamhŭng, one of the country's largest cities, the number of starving families was to increase significantly, and the blood trade became a last resort for many.
Blood is bought by hospitals, but not only them
Reports show that blood is purchased not only by ordinary hospitals, but also by facilities treating tuberculosis and hepatitis. Medical tests preceding the donation are often cursory, and sometimes they are not carried out at all.
Under normal conditions, there should be a break of at least six months between collectionsso that the body can regenerate. In North Korea, many people donate blood every two to three months, or even more often. Combined with widespread malnutrition, this is a direct path to serious health complications.
A dramatic example is the story of a woman from Hamhŭng in her forties. When business on the market began to decline, she sold her stall and later tried to make a living from street trading. When this too stopped generating income, she started selling blood to feed her family. She gave it every other month until her body weakened to the point of severe anemia, loss of consciousness and long-term immobilization in bed.
According to Daily NK's interlocutors, this is not an isolated case. Women, who in everyday life in North Korea often take responsibility for providing for their household members, will go to any lengths to provide them with meals – at the expense of their own health.
Reports of blood sales come not only from Hamhŭng. Similar phenomena are also reported to occur in Ryanggang and North Hamgyŏng provinces. Rumors of death by starvation circulate in society. This increases anxiety and a sense of hopelessness.
In normal years, autumn would be a moment of relative stability thanks to the harvest. This year, residents say, there is no such window of respite. Where previously people managed to survive on home-based trade in bazaars, today even this source of income has collapsed.
Selling blood for food is becoming a painful barometer of extreme poverty in North Korea.
