wfn.org | CWS Response in N. Korea Famine

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

National Council of the Churhes of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
NCC Website: http://www.ncccusa.org
Worldwide Faith News www.wfn.org
Internet: news@nccusa.org

72NCC7/29/98       FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

***************************************************
REPORTERS AND EDITORS: When listing organizations 
responding to the famine in North Korea, please 
include: Church World Service, Account #976503 North 
Korea Famine, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515.  
Credit card contributions: 1-800-297-1516 ext. 222.

Updates on CWS response in Papua New Guinea, 
following the tidal wave, and among persons 
displaced by the fighting in Kosovo are included at 
the end of this news release.
***************************************************

COOKIES, GREENHOUSES & MORE - CWS RESPONSE IN N. 
KOREA FAMINE 

 NEW YORK, July 30---- Cookies and lentils, 
greenhouses and fertilizer - these are among the 
diverse elements of Church World Service's ongoing 
response to North Korea's long-running, severe 
shortage of food.

 Oil and sugar contributed by Church World 
Service are used by the Singhe County Nursery and 
Kindergarten Supply and Food Processing Factory to 
bake cookies for the 12,550 children in the 381 
institutions the factory serves.  The cookies add 
important nutrients - and interest - to the 
children's somewhat monotonous ration.  Beans, peas 
and lentils add balance to the grains contributed by 
many international donors.  The greenhouses and 
fertilizer are key building blocks for longer term 
development of North Korea's agricultural capacity.

 Since 1996, Church World Service, the 
humanitarian response ministry of the National 
Council of Churches, has sent $2.8 million in 
humanitarian assistance to North Korea, including 
food aid, blankets, medicines, clothing, and, most 
recently, vinyl greenhouses and diesel generators.  

CWS is planning another shipment to North 
Korea, to total $750,000 in value.  Mr. Hsu and the 
Rev. Rodney Page, Church World Service Executive 
Director, plan to visit North Korea Sept. 11-15 to 
receive the shipment, which will include $250,000 
worth of blankets and 60 metric tons of legumes 
(beans, peas and lentils).  

-more-

72NCC7/30/98
CWS/NORTH KOREA - Page 2

CWS also is seeking to support a large-scale 
community farm as part of a consortium of six non-
governmental organizations, which will support one 
farm each in Hwanghae Province.  Funds needed for 
the farm project include $70,000 for a generator and 
farm equipment and $130,000 in fertilizer and other 
agricultural inputs.  

 Two years of floods followed by drought 
destroyed much of North Korea's crops three years' 
running and severely weakened food security.  Last 
year's cereals harvest fell 1.8 million metric tons 
short of the nation's need.  By April, North Korea 
had exhausted its grain supply from the 1997 
harvest, forcing it to be dependent yet again on 
international relief until the 1998 harvest begins 
in August.

"Even if there is a good crop this year, there 
is still continuing need," said Erich Weingartner, 
who serves within the World Food Program in 
Pyongyang, North Korea, as liaison officer to non-
governmental organizations.  Mr. Weingartner was 
nominated to his post by CWS/NCC, which hosted him 
on a week-long visit (July 6-10) to New York and 
Washington, D.C.  (See NCC News Release of 7/10/98.)

Children under age six are faring better this 
year than last, thanks to the World Food Program's 
focus on feeding programs for preschoolers, a 
priority adopted following WFP Executive Director 
Catherine Bertini's assessment visit to North Korea 
in May 1997.  Some of the worst problems now are 
being seen in older children.  Diarrhea has become 
common and has been aggravated by the breakdown of 
North Korea's water purification system and a severe 
shortage of medicine and medical supplies.

In addition, people continue to scrounge for 
"alternative foods" including edible barks and 
grasses, mushrooms and seaweed.

 The severity of the situation was confirmed 
during a May 1 visit to CWS and the NCC by a high-
ranking delegation from North Korea, including 
Ambassador Kim Su Man.  Members of the delegation 
confirmed that North Korea faces at least two more 
years of severe food shortages.

 Victor Hsu, CWS Director for East Asia and the 
Pacific, visited North Korea in May to observe the 
arrival and distribution of the latest CWS shipment.  
It included 110 metric tons of edible oil (half 
consigned to the World Food Program and half to the 
Korean Christians Federation), 10 sets of vinyl 
greenhouses covering 500 square meters (KCF), seven 
20-foot containers of clothing and antibiotics (KCF) 
and 40 metric tons of sugar (WFP).

 Among recipients of the oil and sugar was the 
Singhe County Nursery and Kindergarten Supply and 
Food Processing Factory, which produces 90 tons of 
cookies each year.  An all-woman team of 10 works in 
the plant that serves 12,550 children in 381 
institutions.  In all, the oil and sugar were 
distributed to 16 counties for the benefit of 
221,480 children, Mr. Hsu said.

 During his visit, Mr. Hsu said, he saw teams of 
people, including soldiers, planting rice seedlings.  
"Because of the spring season, everything looked 
green and lush," he said.  "But there were signs 
that all was not well.  People were preparing the 
soil for planting on the most difficult terrain - on 
rocky slopes, on the shoulders of train tracks.  
Every piece of land wherever there was soil was 
being tilled for growing vegetables.  Furthermore, 
Erich Weingartner reminded me that the worst time of 
the year for food needs is spring and summer before 
the new harvest."

 There also are signs of serious deforestation.  
Forests once covered 61 percent of the country  but 
have since been cut at least once.  According to the 
United Nations Development Program, 1.2 million 
hectares out of the original 7.5 million hectares of 
trees have been replanted.  The floods of 1994 and 
1995 resulted from the environmental degradation.
-more-

72NCC7/30/98
CWS/NORTH KOREA - Page 3

 Mr. Hsu noted that while the North Korean 
people need at least six million tons of grain this 
year, the total amount available - including its own 
purchases and harvest, World Food Program aid and 
assistance by church agencies and private relief 
groups - totals only about five million tons of 
food.

 "Considering that pledges to the WFP Emergency 
Operation are not sufficient to cover the needs, 
1998 may become another year in which non-
governmental input will be decisive in keeping a 
threatened famine at bay.  Let us renew our efforts 
and show the people of North Korea that we can 
sustain our concern for human need in concrete, 
impartial ways."

 KOSOVO CRISIS:  CWS is supporting emergency 
assistance including food and hygiene items for 
civilians who have fled their homes, farms and 
livelihoods to escape widespread fighting between 
Serbian police and security forces and the Kosovo 
Liberation Army.  The fighting broke out in 
February, and has provoked a widespread humanitarian 
crisis throughout Kosovo and the surrounding 
regions.  The UN estimates that as many as 79,000 
people have fled to neighboring Albania, Montenegro 
and to more peaceful areas within Kosovo.

 ACT members Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), 
International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) 
and Diaconie Agape (DA) have just completed 
extensive needs assessment, coordination and 
planning and are seeking just over $2 million to 
provide:

  a four-month supply of emergency food and non-food 
items to 5,000 internally displaced persons in 
Kosovo;
  supplementary food and hygiene items that will 
benefit persons of all ethnic groups displaced 
within Kosovo and Montenegro, including 15,000 
persons and their host families in Montenegro, 550 
refugees in seven collective centers, 500 
internally displaced persons currently residing 
with host families in the municipalities of 
Pristina, Prizen and Pec, and 6,000 predominantly 
Krajina Serb refugees in 136 collective centers 
throughout Kosovo;
  clothing, beds and mattresses for people who have 
fled to northern Albania to escape the violence 
and civil unrest in Kosovo province.

 CWS will channel funds to ACT.  Please specify 
CWS Emergency Account #976309 - Kosovo Crisis.

 PAPUA NEW GUINEA TIDAL WAVE:  ACT responded 
quickly following the giant tidal wave (tsuanami) 
that struck the northwest coast in mid-July, killing 
and injuring thousands.  ACT forwarded $11,500 from 
its Rapid Response Fund to the Papua New Guinea 
Council of Churches, an ecumenical group 
representing Protestant, Catholic and Anglican 
churches and which has a history of providing 
emergency response in the region.  The Council is 
channeling assistance through the Catholic Church, 
the predominant religious body on the island, which 
is supplying food, water, clothing and medicines to 
disaster survivors.

Church World Service is seeking support from 
its members to sponsor future mitigation and 
preparedness efforts in the region, and for possible 
resettlement of disaster survivors.  CWS Emergency 
Account #976504 - Papua New Guinea Tidal Wave.

-end-
 -0-