I honestly hope he is rewarded with a better future, especially being financially well off by a generous society.
And to just imagine the concept that most in North Korea probably also are ridden with worms.
It will be interesting to learn the soldier’s rank and unit of assignment. In NK, the military is better fed than the general population, though “better” is a relative term. Likewise, if you’re a member of an elite unit, you receive additional rations.
The defector had access to a jeep, indicating he was a driver for a senior officer, or had sufficient rank/authority to enter the motor pool and sign out a vehicle. Given his age, I’m guessing he was a driver, but even a junior enlisted solider in that capacity is carefully screened. It’s a fair bet that the authorities who cleared him for driver duty and assignment to a unit near the DMZ will be among the first to be executed.
Amazingly, this guy was probably better fed than other NK soldiers and vast majority of civilians outside Pyongyang. During the NK famine of the 1990s and the early years of the last decade, the typical civilian was existing on about 700 grams of rice a day. If they got a piece of fish two times a week, they were doing well. And there were countless reports of peasants eating grass in an effort to survive.
After 70 years socialist utopia, NK has produced a population that, on average, is 5-6 inches shorter and 30-40 pounds lighter than the average South Korean. And it’s all a matter of adequate diet and health care. If the defector was infested with parasites, you can imagine the condition of the typical peasant.