http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...%5E663,00.html

Korea's 'lucky' triplets seized

30mar03

ALL triplets in North Korea are being forcibly removed from parents after their birth and dumped in bleak orphanages.

The policy is carried out on the orders of Stalinist dictator Kim Jong-il, who has an irrational belief that a triplet could one day topple his regime.
The number three is thought to be auspicious in North Korea and triplets are revered. It is believed they are likely to rise to positions of power, which accounts for Kim's insistence that they are all raised in state-run orphanages, where their development can be controlled.

Officially, the policy was introduced to help poverty-stricken parents in a country where hunger is widespread.

But aid agencies and diplomats have dismissed this: triplets born to high-ranking officials are also seized.

"There is no doubt that the policy is compulsory and universal," a veteran Western diplomat told London's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"It may be officially atheistic and Stalinist, but North Korea essentially operates a state religion infused with superstition, astrology and a personality cult that glorifies Kim as a unique individual.

"You don't take any chances with rivals in that system," the diplomat said.

The children are housed in "triplet rooms", which visitors describe as bare but clean. They are said to receive good foreign-aid food, but none of the love and affection bestowed on most children.

A member of a foreign delegation that visited one such orphanage said they were greeted with a vision of desperate isolation and sadness.

The triplets were placed together in one room, with many of them rocking backwards and forwards in an almost trance-like state.

"Our people were stunned into silence," the delegate told the Telegraph.

A pediatrician who studied evidence from the visit diagnosed severe emotional trauma.

Delegates reported a high standard of care in the triplet rooms.

"But none of those infants knows what affection is," a delegate said. "Our staff tried to cuddle them for a few minutes, but then, of course, we had to leave."

The seizure of triplets is an extension of a policy designed to ensure absolute loyalty to Kim.

The children of all high-ranking government officials are taken from their parents at the age of two and transferred to state-controlled schools where family bonds are broken and devotion to Kim is instilled.

More than 300 sets of triplets are born in North Korea every year and their well-being has raised worries among aid agencies, despite official claims the policy represents an act of kindness.

In a 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 pre-school subsidy, and special medical workers take charge of such mothers and children and care for their health