Defector Claims N. Korea Manufacturing Banned Drugs for Athletes

FIFA faces another doping scandal, just as the soccer battle ends between the USA and Japan. Woman's World Cup news is getting interesting, but does the world really care? I know most Americans want to see high scoring games, 100 mph plus fast balls, home runs smashed out of ball parks, and bone crushing tackles on the grid iron.

A high-ranking N. Korean defector claims the country is manufacturing banned drugs, disguising them as tonics, sports supplements, and giving them to athletes.

The announcement comes just days after five N. Korean female athletes who competed in the 2011 Women's World Cup in Germany tested positive for anabolic steroids.

The defector claims "The Sports Science Research Institute under North Korea's Physical Culture and Sports Ministry operates two plants in Pyongyang's Potong and Sosong districts that produce drugs for athletes. They are disguised as tonics or nutritional supplements" adding that Pyongyang sent researchers to communist countries to study the subject in the 1980's. "The drugs can make athletes strong, but they cannot be detected by most doping tests."

"It is quite common for athletes in North Korea to take [performance-enhancing] drugs. When North and South Korea fielded a joint team during the 6th World Youth Soccer Championship [in Portugal] in 1991, Ri Myong-song, who headed the North's sports delegation at the time, offered drugs to South Korean athletes but was turned down," said the defector.

He adds, the N. Korean military has been producing the AAS since the 1970s at an army hospital to increase capabilities of  its soldiers, and that athletes in the military are the main users of the drugs.

N. Korea is denying the doping charges, claiming injured athletes accidentally ingested the drugs while recovering from injuries, from using an oriental medicine containing musk.

The AP says the latest N. Korean doping scandal is the largest in a major sports event, since top soccer player Diego Maradona was kicked out of the 1994 World Cup in the US, after testing positive for banned substances.

"Again the modern day witch trials continue" ~ NoMoreLies