North Korean Site Lists Cigarette Addiction Cure..

A jam made from worms and 'brain activator glasses' also among Naenara's unusual products

North Korean companies are currently listing pills which cure cigarette addiction, “brain activator glasses” and a jam made from worms as new products on the Naenara media portal.

The cigarette addiction cure is a product of the Korea Tobacco Cessation Research Institute, a company not previously mentioned in North Korea media.

According to the advert the pills cause “the smoker to grow indifferent to tobacco,” and come with other potential health benefits.

“It cures circulatory and respiratory diseases caused by smoking … It is highly efficacious for phlegm, coughing and laryngitis, and for preventing cancers of the larynx, bronchus, lungs and tongue caused by smoking,” the article reads.

The pills are supposed to be taken three times a day for seven to 10 days, and are made from ginseng and other natural extracts.

“There are two kinds of supplements to stop smoking. The first is a supplement which includes nicotine. So, people can absorb nicotine by having the supplement instead of smoking … The second is a supplement which does not include nicotine,” Bang Joon Seok, a clinical pharmacy professor at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul told NK News.

“But when I heard about the ingredients, it seems more like a nutrient-adjusted food rather than a medicine … It will not have the effect of stopping smoking immediately.”

The North Korean media often attributes numerous remedial properties to ginseng, includinghangover-free alcohol and a cure for MERS, while also promoting other forms of non-Western medicine.

The brain activator glasses featured on the site claim that medicinal effects are only temporary and “forcibly disconnect the neurotransmission functions of the brain.”

The glasses developed by the Pyongyang Medical College of Kim Il Sung University combat neurological disorders, and can treat various kinds of headache, insomnia and nervous breakdowns.

Some of the claims surrounding the “nutritive jam” made from meal worms are equally unusual. The product can supposedly protect those who eat it from “radioactive rays caused by computers.”

The article does, however, draw attention to the high protein content of the food, a claim backed up by academic articles and numerous media reports.

Nonetheless not all the items listed on the site are so oddly marketed. Also included in the product list are domestically made CT-scanners, PH meters and water treatment devices.