wfn.org | North Korea's food crisis continues, Church

[John Rollins <rollins@intac.com>]

World Service team finds

98-2235
North Korea's food crisis continues, Church
World Service team finds

by Carol Fouke
(ENS) North Koreans are facing yet another year of crop
shortfalls, but church  and government agencies continue
to send a steady stream of aid to the beleaguered
country.
          Those were among the findings of a Church World
Service food aid monitoring  team, including Canon
Patrick Mauney, director of Anglican/Global Relations for
The  Episcopal Church, following a Sept. 11-14 visit to
Pyongyang and the countryside.          Although its time
in North Korea was brief, the team's travel route spanned
the  peninsula from the Western Sea Barrage to Popdong
County on the east coast, and  included visits to public
distribution system (PDS) warehouses, homes, day care
centers  and hospitals. The team was hosted by the Korean
Christians Federation and the World  Food Program.
          Team members monitored the arrival and
distribution of the latest CWS  humanitarian shipment:
110 tons of edible oil, 66 tons of beans and lentils, and
three sets  of generators.  In Kangwon Province, the oil
and pulses were designated for 989 day care  centers in
10 counties.
          "It was heartening to see our donations going
to the exact places we said we  wanted them to go,"
commented the Rev. Dr. Rodney Page, CWS executive
director,  who spotted CWS commodities at a day care
center, public distribution center, hospital  and in two
homes.

International aid helps children
     "The preschoolers we saw in Popdong County looked
healthy," reported Mauney,  who is first vice president
of the CWS board of directors. He credited the
international  community for its intensive and targeted
assistance to this age group.  The day the team  visited,
the county's older children were in the mountains
foraging for acorns, he said.
     However, "the PDS warehouses and the stockrooms of
the kindergartens,  hospitals and day care centers that
we visited on the trip were almost empty except for the
milled rice, edible oil and flour donated by
international aid agencies and governments.   We saw in
evidence bags from the European Community, Republic of
Korea and the  U.S.A.," said Victor W.C. Hsu, CWS
Director for East Asia and the Pacific.
          Mauney praised the U.S. government for
continuing its generous humanitarian  assistance to
hungry North Koreans, and for using "diplomacy rather
than bluster and  reactivity" to resolve sensitive
international issues.
     The 1998 grains harvest, like last year's, is
expected to fall about 2 million tons  short of the 6.6
million needed each year to feed North Korea's 22 million
people,  according to unofficial predictions from
informed observers in aid agencies.
     The shortfall is the result of progressive
deterioration of the soil quality combined  with flooding
brought on by powerful storms in late August. For the
past three years,  floods and then drought have
extensively damaged crop yields nationwide.
The Aug. 23-24 deluge destroyed at least 2,300 homes,
left 50 persons dead and  40 still missing, washed away
crops growing on more than 400,000 acres of land, and
rendered the Riwon County railway system totally
inoperable.  At least 10,000  households were directly
affected.
          "Health and water systems were of course
seriously damaged, increasing risks of  disease in an
immune-weakened population," Hsu said.  "Additionally, we
were told that  the flooding caused the farmers to
harvest waterlogged and immature wheat for  consumption."

Mandate to feed the hungry
     The Episcopal Church has continued to aid North
Korea during its food crisis  through the church's
support of CWS, the humanitarian response ministry of the
National  Council of Churches. In addition, the Diocese
of Seoul has received a $25,000 emergency  grant from the
Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief.
          Page urged the international community to
persist in helping North Korea get  back on its feet.
"Our hearts go out to all who suffer in North Korea," he
said, "and there  are many suffering the ravages of not
having enough to eat."
          Christians have a particular mandate to feed
the hungry, Page said, adding the  reminder that "a lot
of our aid is distributed through the Korean Christians
Federation,"  which is seeking to serve the broader North
Korean community. "There's a Christian  community that's
vibrant and growing in the DPRK," he said, "and we want
to help  nurture that community."

--Carol Fouke is director of news and information for the
National Council of  Churches.