South Korea Steps Up Fight Against Human Flesh Pills from China

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtim...rom-china/


South Korea Steps Up Fight Against Human Flesh Pills from China


South Korean customs officials are boosting efforts to stamp out illegal smuggling of drugs that are allegedly coming from China. Reason: The drugs supposedly contain human flesh.

SBS
A screenshot from a documentary by Korean TV station SBS on pills allegedly made from human flesh and smuggled into South Korea.

Since August, Korean authorities have discovered nearly 17,500 of the human flesh capsules in the luggage of tourists and in international mail, the state-run Korea Customs service said in a statement Monday.

The pills, disguised as performance enhancement drugs, have been smuggled in by ethnic Koreans living in northern Chinese cities and contain so-called super bacteria that is hazardous to human health, the statement said.

South Korea’s crackdown on the drugs began last year after SBS, one of the nation’s major television broadcasters, ran a documentary accusing Chinese pharmaceutical companies of collaborating with abortion clinics to make pills allegedly made of human fetuses and the remains of dead infants.

The documentary claimed that DNA tests verified that the pills were made from powdered humans.

China’s Ministry of Health launched an investigation into the drugs’ origins last August, according to the state-owned China Daily. Representatives from the Ministry of Health did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Demand for the pills has been driven by the belief that the fetus is a “tonic” for disease, the China Daily cited the documentary as saying. Consumption of human placentas is more common in China, where it is believed to help revive blood supply and circulation, according to the China Daily report. A report in the Global Times, a tabloid published by the official People’s Daily, said the human flesh pill were used to enhance sexual performance.

The Korean customs announcement comes less than a month after China’s drug regulators announced the suspension of sales of 13 drugs (11 Chinese traditional medicines and two antibiotics) after finding they were encased in gelatin capsules that contained excessive levels of chromium. According to China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, the toxic drug capsules were believed to originate from factories in China’s coastal Zhejiang province and had been made using scraps of leftover leather.

Pills smuggled into Korea have come from China’s northern cities of Yanji, Jilin, Qingdao and Tianjin, the Korean customs statement said.

The Korean customs office has requested an examination of ingredients to determine if a legal import channel can be established for non-hazardous health supplements from China, the statement said.

Edit: This item has been edited to make clear the origin of the claim that the pills contain fetal material.

– Laurie Burkitt, with contributions from Min-sun Lee. Follow Laurie on Twitter @lburkitt

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food safety,
Pharmaceuticals,
South Korea

Little Tommy Lo Mein, special low price

Of course most Asians in this country, at least, in reality, would probably find this as abhorrent as the rest of us. But I'll say this. I'm never taking my kids to Korea or China, just to be safe. I wonder what the food safety standards are in China for serving little Timmy =P

this is ancient chinese medicine that corportate big pharma doesn't want you to know about.

-- naturopaths everywhere

MAd for title. Suspect that this won't last long.

Stupid title, stupid thread...

Rp 2012!

i like the title.

Its comical. The guy at your local Chinese restaurant is not going to cook your kids. But still its amazing that something goes on like that in that part of the world.

Personally this seems less nasty than those people who take a bite out of their kids umbilical cord. You're not going to see me downing either one but...

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmy! - http://www.momlogic.com/2009/04/i...acenta.php

Quote from vaultaddict : Rp 2012!

Haha, someone put up a Ron Paul 2012 banner across an overpass and the following day when I drove by it someone added a "sucks" banner below it. LOL

Quote from Werther : [Little Tommy Lo Mein, special low price

you mean, Rittle Tommy Ro Mein, special row price...

Quote from LivninSC : Personally this seems less nasty than those people who take a bite out of their kids umbilical cord. You're not going to see me downing either one but... Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmy! - http://www.momlogic.com/2009/04/i...acenta.php

yea, January Jones ate her own placenta... don't knock it til you try it