Olympic gold medallist and MP hopeful James Cracknell has apologised after citing North Korea as a country which has “got a handle on obesity”.
The rower, who is hoping to become a Tory MP, admitted that he had made a blunder after speaking about obesity on Sky News on Tuesday morning.
Cracknell said: “If you think of the two countries of the world that have got a handle on obesity, what do you think they are? Which two countries?
“North Korea and Cuba.
“See they are quite controlling on behavioural change.”
Presenter Jonathan Samuels was quick to remind him people living in Kim Jong-un’s single-party state are actually starving.
He said: “People are starving in North Korea. They’re not obese because they haven’t got any food.”
Cracknell responded: “Exactly. But there were sanctions and everything else. But the example is behaviourial change.”
His comments prompted criticism on social media...
To be fair to Cracknell, he quickly apologised for his remarks...
North Korea has been described as “among the most repressive” countries in the world by Human Rights Watch.
In 2014, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (COI), reported extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortion, and other sexual violence in North Korea.
The inquiry’s report concluded that the “gravity, scale and nature of these violations reveal a State that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.”