I am an editorial writer at The Korea Times, focusing on foreign policy, North Korea and domestic politics. My key areas of interest include North Korea, foreign interference in elections, election integrity, cyberattacks and human rights. Prior to joining the Editorial Board, I served as both Politics Desk editor and Culture Desk editor. During my career, I have reported on the Presidential Office under the Lee Myung-bak administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly.
Surgeon gives lift-up to NK defectors, migrant workers
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Park Sang-hoon, director of ID Hospital
By Kang Hyun-kyung
By Kang Hyun-kyung
A doctor has been providing free plastic surgeries for North Korean defectors and migrant workers suffering from facial deformities, cleft lips and Down’s Syndrome.
Park Sang-hoon, director of ID Hospital in southern Seoul, is one of the doctors in the program dubbed the “Project Makeover: Let Them Have New Faces” run by the Gangnam District Office to help the underprivileged have cosmetic treatments.
The district office of Gangnam, the Mecca for plastic surgery in Korea, has been running the free plastic surgery program for three years.
Park has provided free surgeries to 20 patients, mostly single parents, child breadwinners, and North Korean defectors, since last year.
“North Korean defectors and migrant workers can’t afford to have plastic surgery. We’ve been providing the medical services for these neighbors to help find new hopes in their life,” the 50-year-old plastic surgeon said.
Park cited a North Korean defector suffering from necrotic cell death occurring in several parts of his body as one of the most memorable patients he had seen through Project Makeover.
Park said the man surnamed Bark visited his hospital last August, four months after the North Korean underwent a surgery to cure dying cells in his abdomen, thigh, back and legs.
“He has plenty of scars and severe skin troubles. But I couldn’t do anything for him at that time because he had not fully recovered from surgery. He needed to recover from surgery before undergoing a cosmetic procedure, so I’ve been waiting for him to recover,” Park said.
“While escaping from the North, Bark, a TV news anchor in the North, was so hungry that he ate whatever he saw, even frogs. Bacterial infection caused the defector to sustain necrotic cell death in several parts of his body,” he said.
This year, Park and his fellow plastic surgeons at the hospital are scheduled to perform surgery or treat 50 underprivileged patients.
The Gangnam District Office will receive a list of patients recommended by medical staff from clinics and social workers from community centers by Monday and select 50 to provide free medical treatments at the ID Hospital.