Church appeals for international assistance

Church appeals for international assistance

In March 2011, a United Nations report stated that six million people in the DPRK (North Korea), a quarter of the country’s population, are in urgent need of international food aid. The Korean peninsula has suffered devastating summer floods, and an especially severe winter, which “leaves the country highly vulnerable to a food crisis.

The report recommends that 430,000 metric tons (475,000 tons) of food aid be supplied urgently, as North Korea may out of food over the summer period, before the autumn crops can be harvested. Other non governmental organisations report that 50 percent to 80 percent of the wheat and barley planted for spring harvesting have been wiped out and that hospitals reported an increase in malnutrition over the past six months.

The people of North Korea are in a difficult and vulnerable position. Lat year, the main foreign donors, the US and South Korea, stopped providing aid after the North was alleged to have sunk a South Korea navy vessel, with loss of 46 lives, and after it shelled Yeonpyeong Island in response to US and South Korean naval exercises. South Korea has demanded an apology before aid can resume, while the US demands a better monitoring system for international aid. Currency reforms and the mismanagement of the economy in the DPRK are said to have exacerbated the problems.

It is often claimed that that food aid is diverted to the military. The United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) has recently increased the number of food aid distribution monitors in the country in order to ensure effective and unambiguous distribution. The WFP has also asserted numerous times that its distribution system from port to the homes of the neediest is reliable and effective. Rigorous monitoring systems are now in place with the agreement of the North Korean Government. There seems to be no immediate reason to withhold food aid.

Over recent years, the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand has formed a deep commitment to Korean people in New Zealand and to the people of the Korean Peninsula. Many Korean people and congregations have joined the the Church. Their concerns, dreams and hopes have become our Church family’s concerns, dreams and hopes. The Church cannot ignore events on the Korean Peninsula when so many members of its members are distressed by what is taking place there.

The Church has established committed and active relationships with Presbyterian churches in South Korea, as well as built up effective contacts with the Korean Christian Federation of North Korea.

The Church recently was able to present, during the visit of one is to ministers, 3000 Euros to the Bongsoo Bread and Noodle Factory in Pyongyang, the capital of the DPRK. This money was donated by Korean and other members of the Church in New Zealand. Similarly, other organisations such as the NZ DPRK Society have made significant contributions to a school in Pyongyang and a farm nearby. These small but significant gestures keep alive the NZ relationship with North Korea in significant ways.

New Zealanders have long been known as a generous people in times of need. New Zealand has always willingly participated in UN peace keeping tasks. As with its anti-nuclear movement, New Zealanders have claimed the right to voice an independent and well-reasoned argument for peace. In that vein, the the Church supports the call of the Korean churches for the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula.

When the churches in South Korea sent food aid to North Korea recently, they were criticised by their own government. The National Council of Churches in Korea is facing legal action by the Seoul government. This is deeply troubling and the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand states clearly and firmly that we stand alongside the National Council of Churches in Korea in their response to the needs of the people in the North. Little is gained from isolating a nation and its people. Questions about food aid should be based solely on need and not on political considerations.

The Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand asks the President of the Republic of Korea, Mr Lee Myung Bak, to resume food aid to the North. We ask the governments of New Zealand and the United States of America to make a significant contribution of food aid available to the DPRK through the United Nations World Food Programme without delay.

ENDS/

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