wfn.org | CWS/NCCCUSA $1.5 Million for North Koreans

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
Internet: news@ncccusa.org

NCC8/15/97   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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NOTE: Persons wishing to help respond to the food emergency in 
North Korea may do so through:
Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515.  
Pledges or credit card donations: 1-800-762-0968.
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CALIFORNIA CONGREGATION AND SOUTH KOREAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL
JOIN WITH CHURCH WORLD SERVICE TO SEND RELIEF TO NORTH KOREA

 NEW YORK, Aug. 15 ---- Nearly $1.5 million in 
antibiotics, clothing and food are on their way from Church 
World Service to North Korea, thanks to the Los Altos, Calif., 
United Methodist Church and the National Council of Churches 
in Korea, which are donating shipping costs.

 The goods will help relieve the malnutrition, along with 
the accompanying illness and hardship, now affecting nearly 40 
percent of North Korea's people.  Children and the elderly, 
along with pregnant and nursing women, are hard hit.  There is 
mounting evidence of severe malnutrition and significant 
mortality, particularly among young children.

 Two years of floods and now a major drought have crippled 
North Korea's agricultural capacity.  The public distribution 
system has run out of domestic food.

The Los Altos congregation is paying most of the $50,000 
Church World Service needs to ship seven 20-foot containers of 
clothing, valued at $595,000.  Each container takes about 
20,000 pounds of clothing.  The National Council of Churches 
in Korea is helping CWS with $30,000 for shipping 2,200 pounds 
of antibiotics valued at $606,000.  Church World Service also 
is processing a shipment of 1,400 tons of rice, valued at 
$250,000.

Earlier this year, Church World Service sent some 670 
tons of rice, 500 tons of barley seed and 20 tons of high-
yield corn seed to North Korea, valued at $630,000.  Farm 
families planted the barley seed in March, and in June they 
harvested 7 million tons of grain - half of what's normal, but 
significant nonetheless.  Those same fields have been 
replanted for a second harvest - now seriously endangered by 
the current drought.

Church World Service is the humanitarian assistance 
ministry of the National Council of Churches.
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