While many of us feasted on Thanksgiving, there were people in other nations willing to sacrifice life and limb in hopes of finding freedom outside their borders.

One soldier who defected from North Korea two weeks ago certainly had reason to be thankful for his dash to freedom.

A North Korean soldier, whose last name is Oh, drove an army truck to the Demilitarized Zone and then made a run to cross the border. His former comrades fired about 40 shots, hitting Oh five times, but he managed to make it to the south.

A U.S. military helicopter took the wounded soldier to a hospital near Seoul, where he had two operations for bullet wounds. During the surgery, doctors discovered his body also had a large number of parasitic worms — some over 10 inches long — including one kind that was typically found in dogs.

A veteran surgeon said he never saw anything like it outside of a medical textbook. The soldier’s poor health was blamed on poor sanitary conditions in North Korea since intestinal worms are typically transmitted through contact with feces or unwashed hands.

As for as the soldier’s flight, it’s one example of just how desperate North Koreans are to escape the brutal regime of Kim Jong Un. Another former army defector who crossed the DMZ four years ago was not surprised, stating that most North Koreans are hungry, including the soldiers.

The U.N. World Food Programme estimates that as much as 70 percent of the country’s 25 million people lack a “sufficiently diverse diet” and since the parasites steal much-needed nutrition, it is believed that at least half of the population were likely to have the worm infection.

China repatriates those North Korean refugees trying to flee across their border, which means a certain death sentence.

For that reason, 80 percent of the North Koreans escaping carry poison, because they’d rather die than be sent back to North Korea.

The fence separating north and south is Kim’s only hope of stopping a mass exodus of his people into the south, but as history proves, barriers built to divide and block people from leaving can be toppled.

Over half a century ago, President John F. Kennedy electrified a crowd gathered in the shadow of the Berlin Wall with his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner) speech.

“There are many people in the world who really don’t understand, or say they don’t, what is the great issue between the free world and the communist world,” Kennedy said. “Let them come to Berlin.”

He went on to say freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving.

“Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved all are not free,” Kennedy said. “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, Ich bin ein Berliner.”

Ronald Reagan would echo Kennedy’s sentiments 24 years later in his “Tear down this wall!” speech to President Gorbachev of Russia.

Under our Constitution, American football players, who earn millions, are free to turn their back on the national anthem to protest perceived social injustice. In a place like North Korea such a display could earn them — and their families — a lifelong ticket to a brutal work gulag or even a quick death.

For a real lesson in personal liberties, those players who choose to take a knee to protest America could gain some historical perspective from that North Korean soldier, whose worm-infested, bullet-riddled body bears testimony to a brutal dictatorship that inspired a desperate flight for freedom at any cost.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com