wfn.org | North Korea Food Crisis Continues

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

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2252
Internet: news@ncccusa.org

94NCC9/18/98  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NORTH KOREA'S FOOD CRISIS CONTINUES, CWS TEAM FINDS

 NEW YORK, Sept. 18 ---- North Koreans are facing yet
another year of crop shortfalls, reported a Church World
Service food aid monitoring team following its Sept. 11-14
visit to Pyongyang and the countryside.

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 United Nations' official
crop assessment report comes out in December.

To blame are progressive deterioration of the soil
quality along with storms and floods in late August, said
Victor W.C. Hsu, CWS Director for East Asia and the
Pacific.

For the past three years, floods and then drought
have extensively damaged crop yields nationwide.  This
year, regional storms and floods in late August marred a
generally hospitable growing season.

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," Mr. Hsu said.  "Additionally, we were told
that the flooding caused the farmers to harvest waterlogged
and immature wheat for consumption."

 Mr. Hsu was accompanied by the Rev. Dr. Rodney Page,
CWS Executive Director, and Canon Patrick Mauney, Director
of Anglican/Global Relations for The Episcopal Church and
First Vice President of the Church World Service and
Witness Unit Committee.  CWS is the humanitarian response
ministry of the National Council of Churches.

They were hosted by the Korean Christians Federation
and the World Food Program, whose non-governmental
organization liaison, Erich Weingartner, was seconded to
the WFP by a group of NGOs including Church World Service.

 Although their time in North Korea was brief, the CWS
team's visit 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 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 Dr.
Page, who spotted CWS commodities at a day care center,
public distribution center, hospital and in two homes.  CWS
blankets should arrive at Nampo Port next week for
distribution to orphanages and day care centers in time for
winter, he said.

"The preschoolers we saw in Popdong County looked
healthy," reported Canon Mauney, crediting 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.," Hsu
said.

 Canon 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.

 Dr. 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, Dr. 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."  The CWS team also saw:

  The Bongsu Noodle Factory, a brand new facility run and
managed by the Korean Christians Federation, with
capacity to produce two tons of noodles a day, although
it has flour enough for only half that, Canon Mauney
said.  Dr. Page added that the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) helped the KCF buy machinery for the factory,
which operates 24 hours a day, six days a week - except
Sunday.
  People foraging for food, including acorns and edible
grasses, in both Pyongyang and the countryside.
  People fishing in the rivers that run across Pyongyang.
"The water is not clean," Mr. Hsu said, "and we did not
see any evidence of a successful catch."
  Attempts to grow vegetation on every square inch of
available soil, including rocky hilltops and right
outside the doorstep to the house.
  Damage from the late-August floods.  Traveling for about
220 miles going from Nampo Port in the west to Popdong,
"we saw destroyed dams, buildings, roads, bridges and
railway lines," Mr. Hsu said.  "Debris had been cleared
away but repair work had not begun, most probably due to
the 50th anniversary preparations and celebrations."

 The CWS team's program included meetings with the
Rev. KANG Young-sup, KCF Chairperson; Mr. David Morton, the
U.N. humanitarian coordinator for North Korea, and
representatives of aid agencies resident in the DPRK.

 Church World Service, which has a long history of
contact with North Korea, especially 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.

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