Doctors saved a North Korean man by removing a chicken bone that had obstructed his breathing for six months, according to a Russian hospital, in another case documenting how Russians have rendered medical aid to DPRK citizens amid an influx into the country for work.

The 2-cm chicken bone fragment was lodged in the man’s right bronchus, leaving part of his lung barely functioning, Vladivostok’s Regional Clinical Hospital No. 2 said in a social media post Tuesday.

The man suffered persistent coughing fits and recurring fevers several months before the procedure. His body was reacting to the foreign object with