wfn.org | Hope, Distress Intertwined in North Korea

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

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 
USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
Internet: carolf@ncccusa.org

NCC7/10/98                 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HOPE, DISTRESS INTERTWINED IN NORTH KOREA, 
ERICH WEINGARTNER REPORTS

 NEW YORK, July 10 ---- North Korea's slow-
moving, long-term shortage of food has left an 
entire nation weakened and vulnerable to disease.  
People continue to live very much on the edge, and 
the situation could tip back over into famine at any 
time.  Yet there is hope even in the midst of 
continuing distress.

 That is the report of Erich Weingartner, 
serving within the World Food Programme in 
Pyongyang, North Korea, for the past year as liaison 
officer to non-governmental organizations ("ngos").  
He took five days (July 6-10) out of his month-long 
"home leave" for meetings in New York and 
Washington, D.C., with governmental and non-
governmental bodies, including the churches, and 
with news media.  He will return to North Korea next 
week for another term.

 A member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 
Canada and former Executive Secretary in the 
Commission of Churches on International Affairs for 
the World Council of Churches, Geneva, Switzerland, 
Mr. Weingartner was nominated to his WFP post by 
Church World Service (CWS)*, the humanitarian 
response ministry of the (U.S.) National Council of 
Churches, which hosted him during his U.S. visit.  

Responsible for tracking ngos' humanitarian aid 
from arrival through distribution, his expenses in 
Pyongyang are paid by an international coalition of 
humanitarian agencies, with CWS as the lead agency.

 A series of floods, tidal waves and drought led 
to widespread crop failures three years' running 
(1995-97) in North Korea, a mountainous country with 
only 20 percent arable land.  

 Few, if any, North Americans have broader 
knowledge of the food crisis in North Korea than 
Erich Weingartner.  He is an officer of the 
interagency forum in Pyongyang, trains World Food 
Programme monitors and travels extensively in 
country -- he has been in all but 39 of North 
Korea's 210 counties -- to observe the food 
situation and distribution of donated aid.

 "When I arrived in North Korea last June," he 
said, "I saw some of the worst cases of malnutrition 
I have seen anywhere in the world.  In many 
nurseries and kindergartens, I saw rows of emaciated 
children lying still, and they looked like they 
wouldn't survive."  In fact, many children died.

 The World Food Programme, a United Nations 
agency that receives donations from both governments 
and non-governmental organizations, put concentrated 
effort into feeding children up to age six, and as a 
result, "we are not seeing the same extent of 
malnutrition this year," Mr. Weingartner said.  Now, 
when we visit a kindergarten, we may be told, `We 
don't have malnutrition anymore.'  But they may say, 
`We have 10 weak children.'"

 Now diarrhea has become common among children, 
aggravated by the breakdown of North Korea's water 
purification system and a severe shortage of 
medicines and medical supplies.  "Now I see school-
aged children in the hospitals -- for example, 11-
year-olds so thin, their growth so stunted that they 
look like five-year-olds.  On home visits I 
sometimes find school-aged children.  When I ask, 
`Shouldn't he be in school?,' I may be told, `Well, 
he's been ill.'"

 In response, the World Food Programme -- while 
continuing its assistance to preschoolers as a 
priority -- has initiated a "school snack project" 
that will provide children a daily, high-energy 
snack.  And the European Community is targetting its 
86,000 metric tons in food aid this year to school-
aged children, Mr. Weingartner said.  Other donors 
are targetting other vulnerable populations, 
including pregnant women, nursing mothers and the 
elderly. 

 According to the United Nations, last year's 
rice and corn harvest in North Korea fell 1.8 
million metric tons short of the six to seven 
million tons needed by the nation's 23 million 
people until this year's harvest, and the government 
rations ran out in April.  The World Food Programme 
has appealed for 658,000 metric tons in food aid, 
but has received pledges from the international 
community for only about 300,000 tons, Mr. 
Weingartner said. 

 He expressed his hope that projects like the 
school snacks project, along with a growing number 
of projects seeking to have a longer-term impact on 
North Korea's agricultural capacity, will help 
attract additional donations.  "Donors want to see 
signs that change will happen to solve the problem 
eventually," Mr. Weingartner said.  

"North Korea needs not only food now but food 
security, a rebuilding of its infrastructure to the 
point where it can handle its own problems," he told 
colleagues in faith-based humanitarian organizations 
in New York on Friday.  "Churches in the `West' have 
an important advocacy role, to point governments in 
the direction of long-term solutions.  Capital, 
investments, lifting of sanctions - all this is 
important and must go hand-in-hand with food aid."

 This week in New York and Washington, D.C., Mr. 
Weingartner's appointments included the National 
Security Council, U.S. Institute for Peace, World 
Bank, Adventist Disaster Relief Agency, US AID, U.S. 
State Department, InterAction, Church World 
Service/NCC, Korea Sharing Movement and members of 
Congress.   Here are some more of the stories he is 
telling -- stories of distress and of hope:

* "Despite North Korea's deep embarrassment at 
having to accept international donations to survive, 
this crisis has given the opportunity for the 
international community to build some bridges to a 
people isolated for some 50 years," he said.  

"The North Korean people know that when they 
are really in trouble, even their mortal enemies are 
willing to put aside politics and help.  We have a 
chance really to make peace with our concern.  It's 
an opportunity to demonstrate they are not alone.  
It's light for the future."

 * Mr. Weingartner praised the continuing 
generosity of the United States government (200,000 
metric tons of food aid pledged this year) and the 
genuine interest, especially by churches and other 
non-governmental organizations, "in what's happening 
to people in North Korea.  Many ngos send 
delegations, then return home to share the 
information."  

 For example, a delegation from the Irish agency 
Trocaire described the Irish Potato Famine and told 
everyone they met, "We know what famine is about.  
We want to be in solidarity," and a great bond 
developed with many ordinary North Koreans, Mr. 
Weingartner said.

* North Koreans are growing vegetables on 
virtually every spare inch of land, including on 
high, steeped mountainsides and railroad slopes -- 
helping short term but worrisome longer term because 
of the exposure of land to erosion. They've dug up 
their lawns to plant kitchen gardens.  One family 
expanded its kitchen garden by digging a foot or two 
into the dirt road in front of their house.  

Families raise rabbits, chickens and sometimes 
even a pig in one room of their house or apartment.  
People search out "alternative foods" - edible 
grasses, seaweed, mushrooms, bark, roots, berries - 
often gathering and processing these commodities 
collectively for distribution community-wide.

 * Extra produce is sold or traded in public 
markets.  A monthly, hush hush phenomenon barely a 
year ago, now public markets take place as often as 
three times a week and are talked about openly.

 * Hospitals are surrounded by herb gardens, for 
production of alternative medicines.  There is not 
much else in stock.  Doctors Without Borders, 
UNICEF, the World Health Organization and others are 
giving particular attention to acquiring medicines, 
updating medical equipment and techniques for 
capable but heretofore isolated medical 
professionals and supporting public health education 
on malnutrition-related problems.

 * "I am able to travel freely, along with my 
interpreter and driver," Mr. Weingartner said.   "We 
meet with county officials.  We ask to go to this 
nursery or that kindergarten.  We may if we know 
where it is and, increasingly, we do.  Access is not 
perfect, but it's becoming better and better.

 "While we're looking at where and how our 
commodities are being used, we're also collecting 
information about people's health.  We go right into 
homes, visit hospitals, and talk with people waiting 
in line for food.  People are always gracious.  They 
thank me.  I tell them it's not me personally, there 
are many concerned people overseas interested in 
helping.

 "People say it's very difficult for them to 
`show their hands,' that is, `to ask for a handout.'  
One woman told me, `We'd rather be the ones to give 
the aid.  If you ever have difficulty, and once we 
are back in a good situation, we hope we can return 
10 times what you gave to us.'  People are reluctant 
to accept the aid.  They are accepting it because 
they have to.  They are going to be willing to 
return the favor.  I think we're building the future 
with this help."

-end-

-----------
* Church World Service, which has a long history of 
contact with North Korea, especially with the Korean 
Christians Federation, has provided more than $2.8 
million in humanitarian assistance to North Korea 
since 1996, including food, medicine, clothing, 
blankets, diesel generators and greenhouses.  

 -0-