The bandages are removed from the eyes of 1,000 patients who have had cataract surgery. A 23-year-old woman hugs her father and rejoices. But soon she ascribes the recovery of her eyesight to Kim Jong-il rather than the doctors who performed the surgery for free. ¡°I recovered my eyesight thanks to the dear leader. I have to express my gratitude to him,:¡± before bowing deeply before pictures of the incumbent North Korean leader and his father.
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A 23-year-old North Korean woman praises the country's leader Kim Jong-il after she recovered her eyesight following free surgery by foreign surgeons in this video grab from a National Geographic Channel documentary aired on Monday.
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That is a scene from an hour-long documentary on North Korea filmed secretly for the National Geographic Channel and shown on Monday evening. By posing as part of Nepalese eye surgeon Sanduk Ruit¡¯s team, a camera crew was able to document rare insights into the secretive country. Dr. Ruit won the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding for giving free eyesight recovery surgery to poor patients in Nepal. He performed the cataract surgery for 1,000 North Koreans during a 10-day visit there.
Asked what she wants to see most when she regains eyesight, one elderly cataract patient who had been blind for 10 years said, a picture of Kim Jong-il.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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