wfn.org | Korean-American Presbyterian Leader Plead

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23-September-1997 
97372 
 
    Korean-American Presbyterian Leader Pleads For 
    U.S. Action to Meet Famine Crisis in North Korea 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--The Rev. Syngman Rhee, associate director of the Worldwide 
Ministries Division, has appealed to President Clinton and the U.S. 
Congress to take immediate steps to help alleviate the food crisis in North 
Korea that threatens millions with starvation. 
 
    Rhee, who was born in North Korea, issued his appeal Sept. 9 after 
returning from a fact-finding trip to North Korea Aug. 25-30. 
 
    The text of Rhee's appeal: 
 
    "I would like to appeal personally to President Clinton, the U.S. 
Congress, and the entire American people to take dramatic steps to halt the 
disaster in North Korea, where otherwise millions of human souls will die 
this year in a famine of biblical proportions. 
 
    "America, as the moral light of the world, must now mount a "Berlin Air 
Lift" food relief effort or more than five million people will die -- half 
of them under the age of six.  North Korea's grain deficit is almost two 
million tons, according to the U.N. World Food Program (UNWFP), yet only 
some 500,000 tons of aid has been found.  The U.S., pledging 177,000 tons, 
has done the most. 
 
    "But our action is still `inadequate,' as Sen. Joseph Biden said July 
31, and so `the world, following our restrained lead, has been slow to meet 
the genuine emergency need.'  We must also insist, as the senator added, 
that it is `unethical to use starvation as a weapon' against North Korea. 
 
    "Australian member of Parliament Mrs. Pauline Hanson, on Aug. 14, 
called for massive food shipments, noting that most of this fall's crop has 
been lost, including 70 percent of the corn crop, from a horrific new 
drought, compounding the problem beyond internal repair.  German officials 
traveling in North Korea recently saw `pictures that were not to be seen 
since Ethiopia,' she said. 
 
    "U.S. United Nations ambassador Bill Richardson has also insisted that 
the situation is dire and `getting worse.'  Yet State Department officials 
insisted on Sept. 3 that they will `wait for the next U.N. appeal' ... 
after UNWFP director Catherine Bertini has repeatedly explained that her 
small agency cannot physically handle any more grain than it already has. 
 
    "In Pyongyang, in my sister's city of Hamhung, and in coastal areas, I 
observed firsthand Aug. 25-30 the utter desperation of the North Korean 
people.  Rice distribution has stopped and the population grows weaker by 
the day.  Typhoon Winnie has just flooded away 100,000 hectares of 
farmland.  We traveled there to deliver 350 tons of corn we bought in China 
with $200,000 raised by Korean-American church members -- only a drop in 
the bucket. 
 
    "Our American tradition demands mass action by the full resources and 
leadership of the United States government.  This is the way to win the 
hearts and minds of the entire Korean people and put a Christian end to the 
Cold War for good.  Today, our enemies are hunger, poverty and those who 
would perpetuate them.  In the words of Abraham Lincoln, we must act `with 
malice toward none, with charity for all.'  Anything less could mean 
genocide, which might lead to a new Korean war." 

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