[BPSDB] As we come towards the end of 2008, North Korea's inimitable national news outlet / propaganda machine brings us news of two amazing new medical breakthroughs that will surely keep the not-at-all brutally oppressed people - the ones that aren't being slaughtered in concentration camps while the world turns a blind eye - in good health and spirits.

The two advances were reported within 24 hours of each other by the KCNA. The first reports on a substance alled "sungnyung":

Pyongyang, December 3 (KCNA) -- The Pyongyang Maternity Hospital has recently made sungnyung, a Koryo medicine, which helps toward the treatment of patients and promotion of the health of working people.

The chief ingredient of this health drink is Koryo medicine and it proves effective against oxidation, cancer, inflammation, etc. and good for increasing vigor and vitality and treating women's diseases.

Containing peculiar ingredients protecting liver and heart, it facilitates digestion and proves highly effective in the treatment of disorders of the urinary organ, the liver, the heart and so on, if one drinks it for a certain period.

It is called sungnyung medicine as it is so prepared as to taste like sungnyung (scorched-rice tea), a favorite drink of the Koreans from olden times.

This drink can be produced in large quantities as it is made with materials of Koryo medicine abundant in the country. It is popular with the users as it tastes like sweet and fragrant sungnyung and is highly effective medically.

"Koryo" simply means traditional or alternative medicine, or more accurately perhaps "homegrown". Koryo medicine has become a staple of Korean healthcare in the last decade for the simple reason that endemic poverty coupled with sanctions and trade restrictions mean that real medicine just isn't available to the general population - a situation vaguely reminiscent of Cuba's plight.

Indeed, a BBC reporter visiting a major Koryo hospital described: "In a neighbouring bed, a man is treated with a mix of injections, massage and cupping. Some of the treatments are not only plant based but include ingredients such as bear bile, says my guide."

What exactly is sungnyung? Well traditionally it's a somewhat unappetizing drink that went out of favour in much of the Far East once tastier things were available. It's made by taking the burnt stuff you get stuck to the pan after cooking rice, and boiling it in water until some of the flavour is imparted. A sort of incredibly weak, rice-flavoured water. What these people are adding to it isn't stated, and of course there are no trial results available, so it looks suspiciously like the regime is passing off rice-flavoured water as medicine. In that respect, they at least have one more ingredient than homeopaths.

Sungnyung - medical panacaea or just crappy tasting water?

The second report concerns a "national food", "kimchi":

Pyongyang, December 4 (KCNA) -- Korean kimchi, a traditional national food, has a peculiar taste and highly medicinal value.

Containing much polysaccharide and lignin, the kimchi proves highly effective in the prevention and the treatment of hypertension, hyperlipemia, heart diseases and hypertrophy.

The physiological activators of the red pepper and the garlic in kimchi plays the role of preventing cell aging, sterilizing noxious germ, killing pain, improving immunity and the like.

In particular, the garlic kills the germ causing food poisoning and stomach ulcer and activates the energy metabolism, thus having good influence on relieving fatigue and increasing vigor.

The kimchi which is seasoned with medicinal materials is called as medicinal kimchi.

The kimchi with about 40g fruit of Crataegus pinnatifida per head of cabbage is efficacious for heart stimulation, depression of the blood pressure, extension of the blood vessel, prevention against the cholesterol absorption, promotion of animal fat foodstuff digestion and so on.

The kimchi seasoned with Dioscorea batas is good for lowering blood sugar, preventing aging and curing diabetes and poor appetite.

Kimchi is a hugely popular Korean spicy vegetable dish, and has a fair amount of nutritional value - lots of healthy vitamins, calcium, iron, a nice bit of fiber and so on. It has been tentatively linked with gastric cancer, but in a country where entire families are herded into death camps if one member speaks out, gastric cancer probably isn't high on the list of concerns.

Essentially then, this report is the sort of woo that we hear from nutritionists in the West all the time - even the anti-oxidant meme seems to have found it's way into the secretive state. What's kind of notable about this though is the sheer lack of sophistication involved. I can't really just the language used because ultimately we're dealing with translations, but it's remarkable that there's not one single bad statistic to look at - in fact nothing at all beyond the vaguely paternalistic, dictatorial approach of "this is good for you, eat it".

I would dearly love to see some data on how the North Korean people respond to this propaganda, but it's impossible to say. What is interesting is how this example fits in to a universal truth. In every culture, wherever there is a market for medicine - whether that market has been created through restriction of supply through sanctions or increase in demand through media reporting - alternative medicine is ready and waiting to pick up the slack.