wfn.org | Interfaith Delegation to North Korea Returns

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 
U.S.A.
Contact: Wendy McDowell, 212-870-2227
Internet: wendy@ncccusa.org

NCC NEWS RELEASE 11/12/97

DELEGATION OF U.S. RELIGIOUS LEADERS, BACK FROM A 
FIVE-DAY TRIP,REPORTS NORTH KOREA HUNGER SITUATION 
IS STABILIZED BUT NOT SOLVED
Leaders Hope for "Last Battle of the Cold War" to Be 
Won with Bread; Note Increasing Openness

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 11 ---- Four religious 
leaders who were part of a 10-person delegation to 
North Korea from November 4 to 8 report that the 
hunger situation has been stabilized but not solved.  
"We came away convinced that this is a nation 
desperately in need of continued and increased aid, 
including partnerships to address the development 
challenges that will outlast droughts and floods," 
said Bishop Howard E. Wennes, a board member of 
Lutheran World Relief.

At a press conference held here today (Nov. 11), 
representatives from Catholic, Lutheran and Jewish 
hunger relief groups and from the National Council 
of Churches (NCC) shared their observations from 
their recent five-day trip to North Korea, sponsored 
by the Interfaith Hunger Appeal (IHA) and hosted by 
the Korean Christians Federation in North Korea.  
IHA is a coalition of Jewish, Protestant and 
Catholic hunger relief organizations.

"We went anticipating the worst," said Bishop 
Wennes, a Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church 
in America, Grand Canyon Synod.   "Yet our first 
report is good news: food and medicine given by 
governments and non-governmental agencies (NGOs) 
such as ours has helped many North Koreans fight 
sickness and hunger.  At the same time, an aid 
worker told us the children she sees now are 
'stabilized . . . but not strong.'"
 
"There is no question that without international 
humanitarian assistance, conditions would be far, 
far worse," said Victor Hsu, NCC East Asia Office 
Director in the Church World Service and Witness 
Unit (CWS).  "But I think that one must continually 
underline that this is short-term.  Humanitarian 
assistance is providing an absolutely bare minimum 
of food subsistence - probably only enough to last 
through the winter.  The long-term  problems for 
North Korea are structural in nature and must be 
addressed if it is to be productive again."

Meanwhile, humanitarian efforts must be based on a 
"comprehensive approach" that includes clean water 
and medical supplies as well as food for the 24 
million population of North Korea, Mr. Hsu said.  
"To have successive years of inadequate living 
conditions means more illness, disease and death," 
he stressed.

Rabbi Alexander Schindler, immediate past president 
of the Union of the American Hebrew Congregations 
and Board Member of the American Jewish Joint 
Distribution Committee, described the delegation's 
visit to "a hospital whose corridors were piercingly 
cold.  There were no blankets on the beds, no soap 
to wash hands, no unpolluted water to quench the 
thirst of the fevered patients.  The pharmacy 
shelves were devoid of bare necessities."

IHA delegation members brought with them $100,000 
worth of multi-vitamin and mineral supplements which 
will be distributed to children at nurseries and 
kindergartens and to pregnant and lactating women.

Delegation Members Point to Hard Work, Pride of 
North Korean People

North Korea has suffered from two years of floods 
and one year of drought that have destroyed much of 
the nation's crops and severely weakened its food 
security.

 In spite of this adversity, "we were much moved 
by the Koreans' hard work and determination to care 
for and feed their own against impossible odds," 
Bishop Wennes said.  "They are a people of evident 
dignity and well-earned pride.  We saw whole 
communities - from school children to the elderly - 
harvesting cabbage, the last precious crop of a bad 
year and before a third, tough winter."  Said 
Kenneth Hackett, Executive Director of Catholic 
Relief Services, "We found people working together 
with a great deal of love."

 "The people may be too self reliant to ask for 
handouts, but they are not ungrateful for aid when 
it comes," Mr. Hsu said.  "A villager told an aid 
worker, 'I hope the day will come when we can repay 
you tenfold for what you have done.'" Said Rabbi 
Schindler, "They are a proud lot determined to 
prevail - and they will, provided we respond as our 
common humanity compels us to do."

Because of the emphasis on self-reliance, delegation 
members emphasized the need for policies which allow 
North Korea dignity so that it can start to change.  
"I think North Korea is changing without stating 
so," said Mr. Hsu.  "The fact is, North Korea needs 
to change structurally to survive.  It no longer has 
any allies to support its current economic system 
and it needs hard currency to buy food, so it will 
have to begin to trade." 

Delegation Members Point to Increasing Openness in 
North Korea

Delegation members stressed the significance of the 
North Korean government allowing their delegation to 
visit and see conditions.  "This trip marks a 
remarkable change in attitude," said Mr. Hackett. 

Mr. Hsu pointed to another significant change made 
six months ago in the reception of food and other 
aid.  "The system of aid distribution has been 
decentralized," he said.  "The aid can now go to 
various outlets."

Because Mr. Hsu has been able to go into North Korea 
for 10 years, he has seen the marked increase in 
openness to foreigners.  "It used to be that I knew 
the handful of Westerners who were allowed into 
North Korea," he said, "but when I go there now, 
there are a lot of Westerners."

He said a new five-star international hotel has 
recently been built in Pyongyang and that during 
this recent trip, the government even added an 
unscheduled flight.  "It has been an accepted 
reality for so long that flights only went into 
North Korea two times a week," he said.

Some delegation members pointed to the need for 
advocacy around specific issues, including U.S. 
military involvement.  "North Koreans spoke of the 
joint military exercises held by the U.S. and South 
Korea off their borders, so we were forced to see 
how we have been part of their problem," Bishop 
Wennes said.

Bishop Wennes called for more work in this area.  
Mr. Hsu said that his organization, CWS, has been 
calling for the lifting of sanctions as a 
"confidence-building gesture."  He said that various 
hunger agencies are serious about forming a working 
group on agricultural cooperation to make 
recommendations to NGOs.

Above all, the delegation participants stressed that 
they are not nutritionists or agricultural or 
military experts, but people of faith.  "We are not 
Pentagon generals or seasoned statesmen," said 
Bishop Wennes.  "Our task is to share bread out of 
faith in the conviction that God can turn this help 
into hope."

Rabbi Schindler said, "We cannot allow our religious 
and humanitarian obligations to be fixed by the 
boundaries of a single nation, continent," or even 
religion.  "I can report that there is not a single 
Jew in North Korea," he joked, but added, "the fact 
that there are no Jews there does not lessen our 
determination to reach out and help.  When a five-
year-old girl is shivering and starving, it is of 
little concern to us which spiritual path she and 
her parents choose."

Bishop Wennes concluded, "One of our colleagues on 
the trip described this struggle as 'the last battle 
of the Cold War.'  Might it be possible to win this 
one for both sides - with bread, not bombs; with 
medicines instead of landmines?  We say yes because 
we are people who share a faith memory.  Hope says 
it has happened before.  Love says it can happen 
again."

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