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*North Korean Studies*[Editorial] The Korea Herald, 23 May 2001
Recent media reports about a young Korean woman who was caught entering the United States illegally through the Mexican border have renewed our concerns about North Korean defectors. This particular woman's story drew our attention because at first it was sad and dramatic and then because North Korea had denied her citizenship. In view of a growing number of North Koreans fleeing their repressive famine-stricken country, the arrival of some of these escapees in America cannot be totally ruled out. Despite an enormous geographical distance, it was not inconceivable that, some day, a few brave people might somehow find the means to reach the "land of freedom and opportunity."
Few had expected, though, to see a single woman arrested by immigration officials at the end of what she described as a perilous journey over seven years through several countries. The woman identified herself as Kim Soon-hi, 37, a former elementary school teacher in Musan, North Hamgyeong Province. She reportedly told officials at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in San Diego that she left North Korea in 1994 and lived in the northeastern Chinese city of Yanbian for six years, doing various odd jobs, before embarking on her trip to the United States last November. She is said to have left her eight-year-old son with an ethnic Korean in China, from whom she borrowed the money she needed to buy a forged passport and make the trip. She allegedly walked across a partly frozen river, carrying her little son on her shoulders, into China in February 1994. Two other people who were crossing the river with her were shot to death by North Korean guards, according to her story.
Thanks to the assistance of local Korean residents and human rights organizations, the woman was released from the El Centro detention house May 8 and filed an application for asylum in the United States. But last week the North Korean representative to the United Nations dashed cold water on her dream by saying that his government didn't have any record proving that this woman had ever resided in North Korea. With her obscure and unproven nationality, the woman faces a long and tough legal procedure ahead. Then, considering that asylum status and refugee status are closely related under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, she was fortunate to have an opportunity to meet with a delegation of the Seoul-based Commission to Help North Korean Refugees at her temporary home in Los Angeles over the weekend.
Kim Sang-chul, an attorney at law and secretary-general of the commission, said yesterday that his commission would help verify her statement that she comes from North Korea. He said the commission would send a North Korean who recently defected from Cheongjin, the woman's hometown, so that the court could verify and crosscheck her statement. Kim was visiting the United States to file a petition with the United Nations for it to grant treaty-defined refugee status to North Korean defectors, who are estimated at some 100,000 and are mostly hiding in China. The petition is accompanied by 11,800,495 signatures of supporters gathered by the commission through an international campaign over the last two years.
The woman's unfinished odyssey deserves the attention of both the governments of North and South Korea as well as the international community, because her ordeal is not the isolated experience of an individual. Her story, if proven to be true, would say a lot about the suffering silently endured by her numerous compatriots in the world's most isolated communist state. Most of all, her story would serve as a sobering reminder for leaders of both Koreas of their egregious irresponsibility in ignoring the plight of those North Koreans who risk their lives to escape from hunger. They must start discussing as soon as possible how to salvage these miserable people from their tragic existence in the gray zone of the Cold War. The United States could also redeem its tarnished reputation as an international human rights watchdog by extending substantial assistance in resolving this increasingly sticky issue in relations among the two Koreas and China.
By Doug Struck, Washington Post Foreign Service, 16 May 2001
SEOUL -- North Koreans are facing a bleak spring and are once again eating leaves and roots to survive as the Stalinist country becomes increasingly dependent on the outside world to feed its people, according to aid workers and diplomats. International donors feed at least one-third of North Korea's 22 million people, and the need for extended food aid looms larger as a dry spring has followed last year's meager autumn harvest, threatening to bring another year of severe shortages. The crucial food donations to North Korea -- primarily from long-time adversaries the United States, South Korea and Japan -- have sharpened a policy question little debated in the United States but hotly questioned here: To what extent should food be used for political leverage with the hostile Pyongyang regime?
The United States has insisted -- even to disbelieving North Korean negotiators -- that its humanitarian aid is given without regard to political considerations. Despite a hard-line stance from the Bush administration toward Pyongyang, "the United States has been generous, and it looks as though they will continue that," said Michael Crosthwaite, an official with the World Food Program in Rome. Last week, Washington announced the shipment of 100,000 tons of food to North Korea, although it has put a freeze on most other contacts with Pyongyang as it reviews its policy with the promise of a more skeptical view toward the regime.
But in South Korea, donations of food and fertilizer have come under increasingly sharp attack by critics who feel that aid should be withheld to exact a positive response from Pyongyang on such issues as family reunifications, completion of a rail link and improved relations between the two countries. "We should get something in return from the North," complained an opposition legislator, Lee Han Koo, when South Korea announced a long-term "loan" of 500,000 tons of food to North Korea in October. "The money that North Korea does not need to spend on food because of the generosity of its enemies is spent on weapons," wrote Pascal Comeau, the deputy coordinator of a Seoul-based organization that assists North Korean refugees, in a recent article in the Korea Herald.
The World Food Program estimates that North Korea this year will produce less than 3 million metric tons of the 4.8 million tons its people need to survive. The organization says it hopes foreign donors will contribute 810,000 tons -- about half of the shortfall -- through its program. The remainder will come from direct donations by South Korea, China and private charities, and the small purchases Pyongyang can afford -- or it won't come at all. "The outlook is not optimistic," said Kim Woon Keun, an expert at the Korea Rural Economic Institute in Seoul. "The weather has delivered a heavy blow to agricultural production." North Korea had a poor harvest last fall because of drought. Supplies from that harvest are nearly exhausted, and the spring potato and winter grain crops are uncertain. North Korea's official media have acknowledged that extremely dry weather has affected seedlings, and parts of the population are being mobilized to hand-water fields to try to save the small spring harvest.
Already food rations in the government system have dwindled or, in some areas, been exhausted, said David Morton, the U.N. coordinator in Pyongyang. "By next month, the public distribution system will have nothing in it," Morton said in a telephone interview. He said North Korean authorities are urging people to begin producing what they call "alternative foods" -- ground corn stalks and cabbage stalks, roots, acorns, edible grasses and leaves, mixed with whatever cereal they may have. The mixture provides bulk, but little nutrition, and is so hard to digest that people already malnourished or weakened can be endangered, he said. "It doesn't take much for people to get ill, lose weight, and get in serious trouble," Morton said. "There's no doubt people are dying from the combination of weakness, shortage of food and other factors like drinking contaminated water, poor sanitary conditions and lack of medical facilities."
Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor who spent 18 months in North Korea, said the conditions in the countryside are grim. "There are gaunt children, full of infection, malnutrition, just [six miles] away from the people in power in Pyongyang who are enjoying caviar," he said yesterday in Tokyo. Vollertsen was ejected from North Korea in January for his outspoken criticism of conditions there. He has since campaigned for greater awareness of the problems its people face and is scheduled to testify next week before a U.S. Senate committee. He describes working in primitive medical facilities without running water or electricity, persistent malnutrition and a government that oppresses its people. "It was horrible to be a doctor in this country and see that," he said.
The World Food Program and other international groups are still restricted from monitoring the food situation in some areas, although the influx of aid has forced Pyongyang to open its doors to foreign workers in large parts of the country. Pyongyang's national pride has made it fiercely defensive even as it relies on the world to feed its people. It has continued its propaganda attacks against the countries providing the most aid and remains on the U.S. list of nations sponsoring terrorism, largely on the basis of its missile sales to the Middle East. While critics chafe at North Korea's continued bluster, others point out that its desperation is at the heart of its recent diplomatic outreach, the summit last year between leaders of North and South Korea and its often-repeated desire to improve relations with the United States. The food aid it receives increased significantly in the mid-1990s after a famine with an estimated death toll that varies from 200,000 to 2 million. As international aid has increased, however, North Korea's agriculture has remained crippled, affected by successive droughts and floods, lack of fertilizers, decrepit farm machinery and a scarcity of power.
By John Gittings, Guardian, 11 May 2001
North Korea faces a worsening health crisis next winter, even if it manages to feed its people this summer,
international aid experts warn. "There is a lack of antibiotics, medical instruments in many places are outworn, the hospitals are unable to maintain emergency power and have no heating in the operating theatres," Tomas Liew, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross in Pyongyang said. "We have to fulfill very basic needs: they need blankets in the hospitals; many doctors don't have simple stethoscopes or blood pressure gauges."
One doctor consulted by the Red Cross estimated that "because of freezing theatres, only 50% of essential
operations could be carried out last winter." The food shortages remain severe for a seventh year. Last year the World Food Programme helped to feed an average of almost 5.4m people each month - more than one in five of the population. North Korea is now in the "lean season" when its own basic cereals have run out and it depends almost entirely on foreign supplies. There is already concern about the next harvest, following a six-week drought and with a serious shortage of fertilisers. Yet beyond the food emergency lies a wider crisis in health, water and sanitation, identified as the priority by the EU mission which has just visited Pyongyang.
Last year the lack of heating in hospitals was partly solved by aid from Norway, which paid for emergency supplies of coal. Some 70% more inpatients were able to be admitted. Surprisingly, the coal was not imported. It was already available locally but had to be purchased with hard currency.
"This causes some problems," an aid worker in Pyongyang said. "The donors ask why they should have to buy coal from the government just to give it back to the government!" The answer, he explained carefully, was that otherwise "the coal would be used in another context" - meaning it would be used to keep the military and political elite warm. While there are doubts about the government's commitment, there is praise for local Red Cross officials and a network of volunteers. Farmers in remote areas will give up part of a room to serve as a first-aid station. The main problem is lack of funds for a health system that once worked very well, with better access to care than in some western countries. North Korea also used to be ahead of many Asian countries in providing piped water, but there is now heavy leakage from rusted pipes and no power for the water pumps. Children, who are already malnourished, are at further risk from gastrointestinal infections. The problem is how to persuade the government to make the changes needed, rather than continue to rely indefinitely on foreign aid. "There is still a need for humanitarian assistance, but also for other actors in the market", Mr Liew said.
The farmers' markets which are now encouraged by the state help to supplement diet and increase rural incomes. But Pyongyang officials are still reluctant to talk about what they claim is only a temporary concession on the road to communism. The WFP runs basic "food for work" schemes and has also started to provide "non-food items". These consist of shovels, axes, hoes and suchlike, and personal items such as boots, shoes and gloves on which the North Korean government either cannot, or will not, devote enough resources. Last week's EU delegation, led by Sweden's prime minister, Goran Persson, urged the north's leader, Kim Jong-il, to recognise the need to reform the economic system. "They are worried [about the crisis] and committed to opening up," Mr Persson concluded, but he warned that this would require moving towards a "transparent economy [to attract] foreign investments".
Mr. Kim himself raised hopes earlier this year by a well publicised visit to Shanghai to study the Chinese economic model. But reforms are slow in coming, and there is no end in sight to the need for massive foreign aid. UN agencies and non-governmental organisations have appealed for $383m (£269m) to fund this year's aid operation. By April 1, less than one-third had been pledged or contributed. A donor is still being sought to buy coal for the hospitals next winter.
By The Associated Press, The New York Times, 16 May 2001
BEIJING, May 15 (AP) ?Famine and economic collapse cut the life expectancy of North Koreans by more than six years in the 1990's, a senior North Korean official said here today in a rare disclosure. Death rates for infants and young children climbed while incomes fell by almost half, according to a report presented by Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon at a Unicef conference in Beijing. Figures in the report closely mirror outside estimates. The country has depended on foreign aid to feed its people since 1995, when its agricultural system collapsed after decades of mismanagement aggravated by years of bad weather. North Korea has said in the past that 220,000 people died because of famine in 1995-98. South Korean and American estimates of deaths range from 270,000 to two million. Mr. Choe's report portrayed a nation racked by chronic shortages of food and medicine, its economy in collapse and its health care system ruined. The report presented today did not give specific figures for famine deaths, but said average life expectancy fell from 73.2 years in 1993 to 66.8 in 1999. The North Korean population grew by 1.5 million people in the same period to a total of 22.6 million, the report said.
The mortality rate for children under 5 rose during those years from 27 deaths per 1,000 to 48 per 1,000. For infants, the mortality rate rose from 14 to 22.5 per 1,000 births, the report said. Meanwhile, the per capita gross national product dropped from $991 per year to $457, it said. Mr. Choe said a 1995 flood caused $15 billion in damage. The disappearance of trading partners with the fall of the Soviet bloc and sanctions imposed on North Korea for not ending missile sales abroad also hurt the economy, he said. Economic woes helped bring on a health crisis. The percentage of the population with access to safe drinking water fell from 86 percent in 1994 to just 53 percent two years later, Mr. Choe said. Vaccination coverage for diseases like polio and measles fell from 90 percent of children in 1990 to just 50 percent in 1997. Malnutrition, dysentery and vitamin and iodine deficiencies remain serious problems among children, along with a shortage of hospitals and schools, the report said. The report pledges better cooperation with other countries - a possible sign that the isolated state will continue its recent opening to the outside world.
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom, 10 May 2001
(Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap)
Los Angeles, 9 May: A North Korean woman who was detained here after a failed smuggling attempt into the United States, was released into the custody of a guardian after asking for political asylum Tuesday afternoon [8 May]. In a telephone interview with Yonhap News Agency, Han Chong-il, voluntary guardian of the 37-year-old defector, Kim Soon-hi, said the woman will undergo initial screening by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) on 4 June. He said Kim applied for political asylum on the grounds that she
was seeking freedom from oppression and to escape the famine that has ravaged North Korea for several years. "We will protect her with the aid of an association of ethnic Korean residents in San Diego for the duration of asylum-seeking process", he said. Should the United States accept her application for asylum, she will be the first North Korean ever to be granted the official status in the country.
Born in Muan, North Hamgyong Province, Kim lived in hiding in the Chinese city of Yanbian for six years after defecting from the North in 1994 with her son, who was only two years old at the time. She then travelled through Hong Kong, the Philippines and Mexico using a fake passport. "We came to know about her through Korean lawyers of various non-profit human rights groups here who learned she was a North Korean national and volunteered to serve as a translator in her quest for asylum", said Han, who once served as deputy director of the association of Korean residents in San Diego. "I introduced my daughter to them, who serves as a court translator." Kim majored in accounting at a junior college and worked as an elementary school teacher before escaping from North Korea, Han said. "I was told that she decided to seek political asylum in the United States because people in Yanbian have a negative image of Koreans," he said. Kim said, "I don't yet really feel that I'm here. I heard a lot about the United States from ethnic Korean neighbours in Yanbian...[agency ellipsis] But it breaks my heart when I think of my son who I had to leave there. For external relations, Chris Patten, persuaded Mr. Kim to agree to discussions on opening a dialogue on human rights with the EU. But there was no response to the suggestion that Pyongyang should accept a visit by the UN special rapporteur on human rights.
"This is going to be a long process," Mr. Patten said. "But the important thing is to start the journey."
With North Korea still an almost completely closed society, any move to allow on-the-spot inquiries into human rights abuses seems very remote. Its officials are extremely wary of any foreign scrutiny but their heavy-handed tactics often encourage the "negative reports" about which they complain. For instance, journalists accompanying the EU delegation on the second day of its visit were stopped from leaving their hotel to walk in the streets of Pyongyang. An attempt by one to keep an appointment at the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross was frustrated. The EU visit was originally suggested to Sweden, the holders of the EU presidency, by South Korea's president, Kim
Dae-jung, anxious that the peace process which he had initiated was grinding to a halt.
All but one of the EU's members already recognise North Korea or are in the process of doing so: an EU decision on its recognition is expected to be a formality. However, officials in Pyongyang appear in no doubt that in the end it is the US which carries the most political and economic weight, and the EU mission has been at pains to deny that it is mediating between the two.
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By Kim Hyung-jin, The Korea Herald, 9 May 2001
South Korea should call on Beijing to grant refugee status to North Korean defectors in China to protect them from being forcibly repatriated, a human rights lawyer said yesterday.
"It's crucial to ensure that the first North Korean defector in China gains refugee status as soon as possible," said Kim Sang-chul, director general of the Commission to Help North Korean Refugees (CHNKR).
"There are several precedents in which Russia, Thailand and some European nations gave refugee status to North Korean defectors," he said.
Kim spoke at a human rights forum organized by Rep. Hwang Woo-yea of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) at the National Assembly.
Kim said that the Seoul government should take the lead in pressuring Beijing to abide by international treaties on refugees, which they signed in 1951 and 1969.
Under the treaties, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) last year defined North Korean defectors as refugees eligible for international protection.
The UNHCR publicly denounced Beijing for its repatriation of a North Korean family of seven to Russia, who entered China through Russia in December 1999. Russia later repatriated them to the North.
"It is questionable that China wants to join the WTO (World Trade Organization) and hold the Olympic games in 2008, while they are violating the international treaties that they signed," Kim said.
About 100,000 defectors reportedly live in China and the number is rising due to North Korea's deteriorating food shortage, Kim said.
To stop China from repatriating North Korean defectors, the CHNKR has launched a signature-collecting campaign to petition the UNHCR, he said. As of May 7, the number of signatures totaled 11,800,495, including those offered from foreign countries, he added.
Most North Korean defectors, who were sent back to the communist nation, encounter "miserable" lives in concentration camps and even execution, Kim said.
"If defectors are found to have contacted South Koreans or Christian missionaries outside the North, they cannot escape severe punishment, even the death penalty," said Park Sang-bong, another CHNKR official.
At the parliamentary forum, a 62-year-old North Korean defector took the witness stand to explain how Pyongyang authorities treat defectors and their families.
"I was told that my second son was finally executed a few days ago," said Chang In-sook, who fled to the South in 1997. "I think his death is undoubtedly related to my defection."
A medical doctor belonging to a German aid group reported his personal experience in North Korea from July 1999 to December last year.
Norbert Vollertsen, 42, said he was deported from the North after 18 months of medical relief activities due to his criticism of the lack of freedom and human rights abuses there.
"Few North Koreans live human lives," he said. "You can find mental patients, alcoholics and orphans everywhere in the North."
North Korean citizens' living conditions are inhumane, but senior officials there live differently, Vollertsen said.
"When I visited a hospital for military officials, I found that they have modern medical equipment similar to that of advanced nations," he said.
"I realized that most of the international financial or food aid was funneled to ranking officials or diverted to the military," Vollertsen said.
"The international community should step up its pressure on North Korea to open its distribution of food aid to the outside world," he said.
North Korea tightens control over workers on Chinese border
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom 3 May 3 2001
Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap
No
rth Korea is tightening up the attendance check on workers at factories and companies in areas bordering China in a bid to prevent them from fleeing to China, a government official here said Thursday [3 May], quoting recent defectors from the communist North.
According to testimonies of North Korean defectors, the People's Security Ministry of the famine-stricken country has stepped up its activities to pick out potential defectors, by summoning those who are frequently absent from the workplace for no specific reason and tracing back long-term absentees.
"However, there are testimonies that authorities still have difficulty locating the whereabouts of disappearing citizens amid mounting death and defections", the official added. Since 1995, when the chronic food shortages began, the North has turned a blind eye to citizens who leave their factories or companies to cross over the border in search of food.
France decides to open ties with N.K.
By Shin Yong-bae, The Korea Herald, 9 May 2001
France, one of the two members of the European Union (EU) yet to open diplomatic relations with North Korea, has decided to recognize the Pyongyang government, South Korean and French sources in Seoul said yesterday.
"The formal announcement of the establishment of diplomatic ties between France and the North will most likely be made ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers slated for early next week in Brussels," a source said.
France's decision to form full ties with the Communist country means that Ireland is the only nation of the EU's 15 members yet to establish relations with the North.
All major nations of the EU such as Germany, Britain and Italy have already established formal ties with North Korea, but France was more assertive than its fellow member states over issues such as the North's human rights and weapons of mass destruction as well as including the North's missile programs.
France called on the North to accept its calls for the opening of its political prisoner camps to the outside world and the disclosure of inmates' names, the sources said.
"France is waiting for a reply from the North to demands regarding human rights conditions. The North is expected to make a positive response because its leader, Kim Jong-il, wants to open ties with France," a source said.
The source, who asked to remain anonymous, noted that France and North Korea discussed these and other issues when North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su-hon visited Paris early last month.
France's decision to open ties with North Korea comes after a high-powered EU delegation, headed by Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson, made a landmark two-day visit to Pyongyang last week.
South Korean officials said the EU leaders' visit further formed an atmosphere conducive to the establishment of ties between France and North Korea.
Persson and other European officials said that North Korean leader Kim agreed to open talks on his country's human rights conditions by sending Pyongyang officials to Europe this summer.
"The agreement on human rights and Kim's pledge to keep the North's moratorium on missile tests until 2003, have had a positive effect on the negotiations between the two sides," said a senior government official.
Other Seoul officials said that they expect the EU will agree on the establishment of ties with the North when its foreign ministers hold talks in Brussels May 14-15.
North Korea, facing economic difficulties and food shortages in the midst of international isolation, has been pushing to improve relations with the international community, including Europe, in recent years.
Since the historic inter-Korean summit last June, European countries have reacted favorably to the North Korean initiative.
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, whose engagement policy toward North Korea, led to the Pyongyang summit and the consequent thaw in inter-Korean relations, has urged Europe and other countries to improve relations with the North to help it adopt an open-door policy and pursue economic reforms.
European countries supported Kim's calls, with several EU members such as Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium announcing their decision to form formal ties with North Korea during the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) that was hosted by President Kim in Seoul last October.
N. Korea says it's facing another famine
By Charles Lee, United Press International, 5 May 2001
SEOUL -- North Korea on Saturday acknowledged it was facing another year of drought that could result in famine, an announcement that appeared to be aimed at wooing foreign donors in the wake of a visit to the impoverished country by a European Union delegation. The announcement, carried by state media along with supporting scientific data, forecast a dire outlook for the country.
"Crops in the Democratic Republic of Korea are badly affected by a long spell of drought," said the North's Korean Central News Agency. Drought has persisted for 58 days in most parts of the country's northern provinces, doing "huge damage to various fields of the national economy," the agency said. "Results of the soil survey showed that 8- to 15-centimeter-deep soil on farmland in all parts of the country remains dry, going far beyond the germination limit. Most of the sown seeds have already dried up."
The report came just after Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson traveled the communist country as head of a high-level EU delegation. The Europeans discussed economic cooperation and relief aid to the famine-stricken North, among other matters. Persson told journalists that North Korean officials were "obviously worried" about the country's devastated economy.
"They are aware of the grave situation but they are, as I could understand it, committed to go on with opening up for more international cooperation." he said.
The EU delegation offered the North fertilizer and agricultural equipment, but also asked for a lifting of restrictions on aid groups assisting North Korea through its chronic food shortages and economic hardships.
International relief workers are still barred from reaching areas in the North deemed important to national security, particularly along the heavily armed border with South Korea.
A German doctor, who was thrown out of North Korea in January for criticizing human rights abuses, accused Pyongyang of distorting information on its food crisis in order to get more international help.
"Nobody knows for sure where the food aid has gone. Food could be diverted to high-ranking people or soldiers," said Dr. Norbert Vollersten, a volunteer for German Emergency Doctors, a nonprofit aid group.
The United Nations World Food Program said last month that North Korea was facing new food shortages that could be as bad as 1996 and 1997, the peak of the near-famine conditions of the past 10 years. Lack of fertilizer and a spring drought led to last fall's poor harvest, which supplied only 3 million of the 4.8 million tons of grain that North Korea's 23 million people need to feed themselves, the agency said.
Aid agencies said up to 2 million people have died in North Korea since 1995 when a series of natural disasters, compounded by mismanagement in the state-run farm system, triggered famine conditions.
South Korea has been shipping 200,000 tons of free fertilizer to North Korea to be used for the rice-planting season this month.
By Choi Won-ki, Joong-ang Ilbo, 7 May 7 2001
It’s springtime again with no rain and North Korea is in full alert.
The state-run Central News Agency reported last Friday that the total amount of rainfall from March 1st to early May recorded just 15mm, an 18 percent drop from the average 83mm.
Hwanghae Province, dubbed as the grain belt of North's western region recorded 9mm in rainfall, setting the lowest of the record. North Hamgyung region got the worst with no rain at all for last 58 days.
The biggest damage would go to grain farming, the nation's basic food source. The planting season for corn, for example, should have started around late April and be completed by late June. However the chances are slim with the ongoing tough weather and its roots most likely to be dried up before ever having chance to stretch out. Likewise for beans, garlic, Chinese cabbage and other vegetables.
“The farm soil has dried down to 8-15cm exceeding the seed planting level. Most of the already planted seeds have dried up leaving hardly a chance for hope,” reported the News Agency.
Not much luck for May, either. The Korea Meteorological Administration in Seoul expects clear weather for most of the month and precipitation rate lower than usual.
“If this famine prolongs agricultural sector of the North would again be ruined for this year,” said Dr. Kim Un-geun of Korea Rural Economic Institute.
Leaders of starving Koreans flew in chefs
Rory Carroll in Rome, The Guardian, 27 April 2001
North Korea's communist leaders imported two Italian chefs to prepare secret banquets of pizza at the height of the country's famine, it has emerged.
The chefs were flown into Pyongyang with special ovens to feed its "Respected Supreme Commander", Kim Jong-il, in 1997 while millions starved on a diet of seaweed, cabbage stalks and grass. Ermanno Furlanis and Antonio Macchia were monitored by army generals as they taught selected chefs the art of rolling dough to ensure thin crusts.
"They measured every one of my moves. They even measured the distance between the olives," Mr. Furlanis said.
CIA agents allegedly intercepted oven parts at Berlin airport, suspecting they had a military use. "They were very worried. Maybe they thought they were nuclear ovens or something of the sort," he said.
The revelations will appear in the geopolitical journal Heartland, which commissioned Mr. Furlanis to shed light on the secretive regime,
In spring 1997, North Korean agents, posing as businessmen, asked Mr. Macchia, the head chef at a Trieste hotel restaurant, to find a partner who would be willing to give a pizza training course.
He turned to Mr. Furlanis, an independent financial adviser who moonlighted as a pizza chef in the nearby town of Codroipo, north-east Italy. He accepted the invitation, was paid in advance and told to spare no expense in assembling material.
The chefs, traveling with their wives, had their passports confiscated during their three weeks in military quarters at Pyongyang and a seaside resort. "It was like being in a golden prison. We received full luxury treatment but we couldn't escape," Mr. Furlanis said.
A minder, Mr Om, reported to General Pah, who appears to have masterminded the initiative. The insular state had run out of food and people were starving, but the ruling oligarchy wanted to celebrate.
Mr. Furlanis explained that no two pizzas were the same, but the hosts were convinced that an ideal recipe could be discovered by analysing his technique. "After my first pizza I was told that in order to make such a dough I must be a very sophisticated person. I was extremely honoured."
He prepared 21 meals for the political and military leaders and their spouses.
Mr. Furlanis's article, entitled Four Italians in the Court of the King, was a cross between Marco Polo and an unfathomable James Bond, said the newspaper Italy Daily.
His only moment of fear came when he was summoned by Gen Pah at 1am, expecting to be reprimanded for urinating in public. He fell to his knees, but the general laughed off the incident and offered a fistful of dollars as a bonus.
S. Korean Minister: South Could Be Human Rights Model for North
AP News, 7 May 2001
Communist North Korea can learn how to uphold human rights from its democratic southern neighbor, South Korea's foreign minister said Monday. But he acknowledged that the issue is not his government's top priority in dealings with the North.
"The fact that we are a democratic country, that upholds human rights, suggests much to North Korea (about what) they should do in dealing with their own people," Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo said in an interview with The Associated Press.
South Korea embarked on a tumultuous transition from military-backed rule to democracy in the late 1980s, while totalitarian North Korea has one of the most notorious human rights records in the world.
Han, however, said South Korea's priority was to pursue "peaceful coexistence" with North Korea, which is viewed by Washington and its allies as a major threat to security in Northeast Asia.
"There are many other issues apart from human rights that we have to deal with in due course," said Han, a former ambassador to the U.S.
The year-old reconciliation process between the two Koreas has come to a standstill in recent months. The North suspended most government contacts with the South in a sign of displeasure with what it perceives as a harder policy line by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Last week, North Korea told a visiting European Union delegation that it would send officials to Europe this summer to discuss opening talks about its human rights record.
North Korea views criticism of its record as a violation of its national sovereignty. Domestic critics have accused the South Korean government of neglecting the issue to avoid endangering efforts to reconcile with the North.
A South Korean analyst cautioned that Han's suggestion that the South could be a human rights model for the North might invite an angry response.
"If South Korea tries to teach North Korea about human rights, it will have negative effects on inter-Korean relations," said Kim Yon-soo, an analyst at the state-funded Institute for National Reunification Policy.
The U.S. State Department has said there is a total absence of basic freedoms in North Korea, citing reports of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions and tight government press controls.
Washington has also criticized the South's National Security Law, a Cold War-era legal bulwark against Communism that South Korea's past military-backed governments used against political opponents.
President Kim Dae-jung has urged the National Assembly to reform the law, which bans praise for, or open sympathy with anti-state groups. But the legislature is sharply divided.
One of those arrested and indicted under the National Security Law is Song Hak-sam, a Korean-born U.S. citizen accused of helping to publish a book in South Korea that praises North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong Il.
North Korea to Learn from the Example of the South
The Korea Herald, 8 May 2001
Han Seung-soo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade suggested that South Korea could be the role model for North Korea when it comes to improving the human rights on Monday, May 7.
Han reportedly said that South Korea’s upholding of human rights would provide certain guide to North’s dealing with their people, in his interview with the Associated Press.
South Korea though built under the democratic basis too went through much suffering when it came to human rights condition throughout the tumultuous political period of the past ruled by one military power to the other. However South Korea managed to find its way to the right track while the North remained ever the same as the totalitarian nation.
Washington and other US allied nations have watched North Korea with concerned eyes as a likely nation to induce war in Northeast Asia region. Despite the heartening inter-Korean summit meeting held last year in June for the first time, the reconciliation mood of two Koreas started to wear off meeting serious of complications from home and abroad.
Roughly two main factors brought the Stalinist nation to withhold the reconciliatory approach; Washington’s hard line policy toward the North and South's worsened financial condition that resulted into North’s disappointment in aid.
During the latest visit from the delegation of European Union delegation to Pyongyang, the leader of the communist North promised to dispatch its officials to Europe this summer to openly hold talks on its notorious human rights.
In same context Minister Han cautioned that there are many other issues to deal with apart from the human rights in the North and that for now, the priority must lie in ‘peaceful coexistence’.
"If South Korea tries to teach North Korea about human rights, it will have negative effects on inter-Korean relations," said Kim Yon-soo, an analyst at the state-funded Institute for National Reunification Policy. Kim pointed out human rights issue is a very sensitive matter to the North that has long practiced various methods to cover up its dirt.
North Korea’s infringement of human rights has been notorious for its tight control on all kinds of free activities which also included brutal killings and detentions without any legal trial.
Little General gets marching orders on trip to Disneyland
Jonathan Watts in Tokyo and John Gittings in Seoul, The Guardian, 5 May 2001
The "Little General" who is being groomed to inherit North Korea's communist dynasty was unceremoniously kicked out of Japan yesterday after he tried to sneak into the country with his family for a trip to Tokyo Disneyland.
Kim Jong-nam, his wife, son and another relative were deported to Beijing three days after immigration officials at Tokyo's Narita airport detained them for attempting to enter Japan on false passports. The Japanese government refused police requests to press charges and sent the illegal immigrants to China without formally identifying them.
There is little doubt, however, that the 29-year-old man at the centre of all the attention is the eldest son of North Korea's "Dear Leader," Kim Jong-il. TV footage of the departure showed a man closely resembling the north's leader. Portly, balding and wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, the deportee sauntered with great self-assurance from the security van to the jet that was taking him out of the country.
According to Japanese media reports, immigration officials had been tipped off about Kim Jong-nam's arrival with two women and a child, believed to be his wife, four-year-old son and another relative. When they questioned him, he admitted buying the forged passport for $2,000 (£1, 300) and revealed his identity.
He told investigators that he planned to take his family to Tokyo Disneyland, saying he had been there once before in his teens. This revelation is an embarrassment for Japan, which has hostile relations with North Korea. According to South Korean media, Kim Jong-nam has been a member of the north's intelligence services for almost two years.
Yet it appears that he has secretly visited Japan on numerous occasions. The forged Dominican passport showed that he entered the country twice in the past 12 months alone.
If revealed in North Korea, Kim Jong-nam's planned Disneyland vacation is unlikely to go down well at a time when millions face starvation.
His father, however, may be more understanding. The Dear Leader has hinted that he
travelled
overseas incognito on several occasions. As an aficionado of Hollywood films, the older Kim may also empathize with his son's apparent passion for American-style entertainment.
Some Pyongyang-watchers suspected that Japan had deliberately leaked news of Mr. Kim's illegal entry to weaken North Korea's position in future negotiations.
Speculation rampant over whereabouts of Kim J.I`s eldest son
By
Kim Ji-ho
, The K
orea Herald, 9 May 2001
With all three governments of South Korea, Japan and China remaining tightlipped about a man believed to be North Korean leader's son, speculation and news reports persist over his whereabouts and his travelling companions.
A South Korean intelligence source said yesterday that the man, who identified himself as Kim Jong-il's eldest son, Jong-nam, arrived in Japan May 1 via China, Vietnam and Singapore.
The source failed to elaborate on his activities in the three Asian nations, only guessing that his trip was aimed at studying market reforms in China and Vietnam, both socialist countries, and the information and technology industry in Singapore.
Accompanied by two women and a boy, the man was deported to China last Friday from Japan, where he had been detained for four days for travelling on a fake passport.
It is speculated that a younger woman, who wore fashionable sunglasses and carried a designer handbag, is Jong-nam's secretary and Japanese interpreter, and that the child is his son.
It was not confirmed yet, however, whether the other female companion was his wife, Shin Jong-hi, or in fact a relative who takes care of the child.
Despite the refusal of related governments' to confirm details, Japanese Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama said yesterday that Tokyo's immigration records showed that Kim's fake Dominican passport had been used on three occasions for illegal entrance into Japan.
But the minister did not confirm whether Kim Jong-nam actually used the passport in previous trips.
News media focused on whether the 30-year-old man and his entourage left for Pyongyang or whether he is currently staying in Beijing.
An intelligence source, who requested anonymity, said the Seoul government had information that the foursome are still staying at the North Korean embassy in Beijing and will return home in several days.
Some unidentified sources in China, however, reportedly said it is possible that the group had already gone to Pyongyang by train.
On Saturday, a North Korean flight left from Beijing for the North Korean capital, which many observers had expected would take the deportees. But they were not spotted at the airport.
Both in May 2000 and January of this year, when Kim Jong-il made a secret visit to China, Beijing authorities confirmed the reclusive Communist leader's visits only after his return home.
Kim Jong-nam is believed to be one of three children of the North Korean supreme leader, whose family has been veiled to the public.
The European Union delegation headed by Prime Minister Goeran Persson visited Pyongyang last week and had interesting dialogue with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il, touching upon issues including human rights. Quite a few articles were found dealing with this trip and the EU delegation’s briefing for US government on the results of the visit. Here are just a few of them for your reference.
By John Leicester, Associated Press, 3 May 2001
YONGYANG, North Korea - Kim Jong Il, North Korea's reclusive leader, held talks today with visiting European officials about his secret missile program and tensions between North and South Korea.
A confident-looking Kim strode into the state guest house to begin the talks with the European Union delegation, led by Prime Minister Goeran Persson of Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency.
After the morning session, the two sides broke for an EU-hosted lunch and toasted one another with glasses of French red wine in a sumptuous dining hall in the 100 Flowers Guest House. Soldiers with machine guns tightly guarded the hall.
North Korea called the talks ''fruitful'' and the EU said they were ''successful'' but no details were immediately available.
Persson, the first EU chief and the first Western European leader to visit North Korea, had arrived in the secretive, totalitarian state yesterday to a warm welcome by Kim's government. It included a ceremony at Pyongyang's airport, complete with red carpet, band, goose-stepping soldiers, and hundreds of women and men waving pink flowers.
''We have come here for frank discussions on the challenges and prospects for the Korean peninsula,'' Persson said in a speech at a formal dinner. ''We would like to put forward ideas as to how the EU could contribute to reducing tension, possibly offering advice and assistance.''
Persson said the talks also would cover the North's human rights record, its widespread food shortages, and its cautious interest in economic reforms.
No breakthroughs were expected, but the talks occur as the North's ties with South Korea and the United States seem to have soured.
Last year, the leaders of the two Koreas held their first-ever summit in Pyongyang, leading to breakthroughs such as the reunion of families who have lived on opposite sides of the world's most heavily armed border since the 1950-53 Korean War.
But the North abruptly pulled out of three reunification initiatives with the South: a round of Cabinet-level talks, the fielding of a joint table tennis team for the world championships in Japan, and a round of Red Cross talks. Cooperation on reconnecting a cross-border railway also has stalled.
At the same time, new strains have developed between the North and the United States, which has stationed 37,000 American soldiers to help defend the South.
Since taking office in January, the Bush administration has voiced
scepticism
about the North and has said that Bush would hold off on talks, pending a policy review.
Pyongyang responded by cranking up anti-US rhetoric and
cancelling
a number of high-profile contacts with Seoul.
Swedish diplomats in North Korea have long represented US interests in the absence of official ties between Washington and Pyongyang. But Persson stressed he was in the North to represent the interests of the 15-nation EU.
Kim turns on the charm for EU team
John Gittings in Pyongyang, The Guardian, 4 May 2001
North Korean's leader, Kim Jong-il, kept the process of detente alive yesterday by wooing the first European Union delegation to his country with a promise to maintain the country's moratorium on missile launches until 2003.
He made enough positive noises in five hours of negotiations with the EU team to offset the gloom caused by the tougher stance towards Pyongyang recently taken by the US president, George Bush.
According to the Swedish prime minister, Goran Persson, Mr Kim reaffirmed his intention to take part in a return North-South summit in Seoul, which was meant to take place in March but has been delayed. He did not suggest a new date for the summit.
In keeping with his "pro-active" diplomacy first demonstrated at the North-South summit in Pyongyang last year, Mr. Kim spent the morning in"frank and friendly", discussions which continued at a lunch banquet.
Wearing his characteristic beige jump-suit, he clinked huge glasses of French red wine with Mr. Persson with characteristic gusto.
Mr. Kim made it clear that the delay in the summit had been caused by unhappiness at the Bush administration's dislike of the dialogue started by Mr. Clinton with Pyongyang. It was not, he said, due to any cooling of relations with Seoul.
Pyongyang is eager to take part in the summit, Mr. Persson said, but is wary of the timing because the US is reviewing its policy.
EU officials were also pleased by the restatement of the 2003 missile moratorium date for the first time since Mr. Bush took office; the US president's decision on missile defence earlier this week leans heavily on the alleged threat from North Korea and other "states of concern".
Mr. Persson was given an oral message from Mr. Kim to Mr. Bush which he said shows "a willingness to continue the dialogue" with the US, but he warned that not too much should be read into it.
Entering new ground, the EU commissioner for external relations, Chris Patten, persuaded Mr. Kim to agree to discussions on opening a dialogue on human rights with the EU. But there was no response to the suggestion that Pyongyang should accept a visit by the UN special rapporteur on human rights.
"This is going to be a long process," Mr. Patten said. "But the important thing is to start the journey."
With North Korea still an almost completely closed society, any move to allow on-the-spot inquiries into human rights abuses seems very remote. Its officials are extremely wary of any foreign scrutiny but their heavy-handed tactics often encourage the "negative reports" about which they complain.
For instance, journalists accompanying the EU delegation on the second day of its visit were stopped from leaving their hotel to walk in the streets of Pyongyang. An attempt by one to keep an appointment at the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross was frustrated.
The EU visit was originally suggested to Sweden, the holders of the EU presidency, by South Korea's president, Kim Dae-jung, anxious that the peace process which he had initiated was grinding to a halt.
All but one of the EU's members already recognise North Korea or are in the process of doing so: an EU decision on its recognition is expected to be a formality.
However, officials in Pyongyang appear in no doubt that in the end it is the US which carries the most political and economic weight, and the EU mission has been at pains to deny that it is mediating between the two.
By Don Kirk, The New York Times, 5 May 2001
SEOUL, South Korea, May 4 -- North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, refused to renounce exports of missiles and missile technology, the European Union's top security official said today.
"He claimed technology was part of trade," said the official, Javier Solana, a member of a European Union delegation that met with Mr. Kim on Thursday.
Mr. Solana said Mr. Kim had cut short efforts to discuss missiles and missile technology exports during the five-hour session, making it clear that, "If he finds people who want to buy, he will sell it."
Mr. Solana indicated, however, that the delegation had been equally firm in emphasizing the European Union's opposition to such exports.
"You can imagine this is an answer we cannot take," said Mr. Solana as the delegation concluded its mission to North and South Korea aimed at reviving the stalled peace effort between the two countries.
Mr. Kim's rejection of suggestions that North Korea stop missile exports contrasted with his pledge to the European Union delegates to extend North Korea's moratorium on missile-testing, which began in 1999, until 2003.
Goran Persson, the Swedish prime minister who led the delegation in his role as president of the European Union, had not mentioned missile exports in his upbeat assessment of the delegation's visit after meeting this morning with President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea.
Analysts noted, however, that North Korean negotiators bargained hard with American diplomats last year on the export of missiles and missile technology, demanding aid equivalent to North Korea's earnings from sales abroad, mainly to Middle Eastern countries. Choi Jin Wook, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute of National Unification, an adjunct of South Korea's Unification Ministry, noted that North Korea had suggested last year that it might stop missile exports if compensated with loans and payments.
A formula under which the United States would provide the North with such aid was the focus of negotiations in the final weeks of Bill Clinton's presidency.
North Korea is "so desperate to resume talks with the United States that their intention is not so tough as it seems," said Mr. Choi, suggesting that the North Korean leader's latest refusal to renounce missile exports may be a bargaining ploy to draw the United States back into talks.
President Bush, citing the problem of verifying any agreement, has suspended talks pending the completion of a review of policy toward North Korea.
Mr. Solana said the European delegation also impressed on Mr. Kim the need to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency on inspections of nuclear power plants to be built under the 1994 Geneva framework agreement. "He has to comply with the international community," said Mr. Solana. Mr. Persson and Mr. Solana both seemed impressed by the informal atmosphere of the talks.
"He was able to listen and argue with us," Mr. Persson said, referring to Mr. Kim. "He listened, then said, `That's a good point,' or `I must consider it.' "
The talks went nowhere, though, when they touched on human rights.
"We don't share the same values so it's much more difficult to have a dialogue on these issues," said Mr. Persson. "On the other hand, he was very much interested to learn from us. It was he who proposed to send a study group to Europe to learn about the market economy."
EU Sees Progress on Human Rights in North Korea
Yahoo! News, 5 May 2001
NYKOPING, Sweden (Reuters) - North Korea is making progress on human rights and two EU technical missions will soon start working in the isolated country, European Union commissioner Chris Patten said on Saturday.
Patten, the commissioner for external relations, returned on Friday from an EU visit to the Korean peninsula where the union hopes to encourage reconciliation between North and South which have technically been at war for more than half a century.
He said his visit had started to open a dialogue between the EU and North Korea about human rights issues in the country.
``I don't think any of us would like to exaggerate how much progress that represents, but it does represent at least some progress,'' Patten told a news conference in the Swedish town of Nykoping, where EU foreign ministers met for informal weekend talks.
``We are well aware that we could be at the beginning of a road which is both long, winding and stony, but at last we have started,'' he said.
He also gave details of EU technical missions to North Korea. The first would provide advice and training for North Korean government officials on how to deal with international financial and economic issues.
The second would look at the energy sector.
Patten said the EU would also look at the working conditions of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) delivering humanitarian aid to the poverty-stricken Stalinist country.
Patten noted that two new NGOs had recently started working in North Korea, bringing the total to 10, suggesting that North Korea was tentatively opening up.
``I do genuinely think they want to thicken up their relations with the EU,'' he said.
Swedish foreign ministry official Hans Dahlgren, who was part of the EU visit, said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had pointed to the United States as the biggest obstacle to peace between the two Koreas.
``He was optimistic in the long run about the reconciliation process, which would one day lead to reunification, but said the biggest problem was interference by the United States and that South Korean president (Kim Dae-jung) was too influenced by the U.S,'' Dalhlgren said.
Dahlgren also said North Korean officials told him they would stop selling nuclear missile technology if they were compensated for lost income.
The United States regards North Korea as a ``rogue state'' for selling the technology. U.S. defense analysts say North Korea is the world's leading exporter of ballistic missiles and related technology, mostly to the Middle East.
By Colin Blane in Nykoeping, BBC News, 5 May 2001
The foreign ministers who are attending two days of talks in the town of Nykoeping, have also been debating the future enlargement of the European Union.
The EU delegation's visit to the two Koreas is being viewed as the beginning of a long process by foreign ministers here.
The team, headed by the Swedish Prime Minister, Goran Persson, spent 28 hours in North Korea, five of them speaking to the country's leader, Kim Jong-il.
By George Gedda, The Associated Press, 8 May 2001
A senior European Union official said Monday after talks with Bush administration officials that the EU's fledgling dialogue with North Korea will not survive if Pyongyang continues to export missile technology.
Lars Danielsson, who accompanied Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson to North Korea last week, said Pyongyang's missile exports are a "great concern" to the EU.
He said EU ties with North Korea cannot "develop further" if Pyongyang continues its missile sales. He noted that the United States has placed similar conditions on its dialogue with North Korea.
Danielsson held separate briefings for NSC and State Department officials on Persson's groundbreaking attempt last week to promote reconciliation between the two Koreas, among other goals.
During five hours of talks with the EU delegation, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pledged to keep a moratorium on missile tests until 2003 but also defended his country's sales of missile technology to Iran, Syria and other countries.
Kim told the Europeans that he sees these sales as a valuable income source for his country. The United States and many other countries see the North Korean sales to be highly detrimental to international efforts to control missile proliferation.
Danielsson said Kim indicated he might agree to curb missile sales if he receives compensation.
According to Danielsson, the U.S. officials with whom he spoke were supportive of the European initiative to Pyongyang.
The Clinton administration and North Korea tried to negotiate a curb on North Korea's missile development and missile exports.
The Bush administration is reviewing the policy. A senior official, asking not to be identified, said Monday it will be weeks or months before the review is completed.
He said there may be a U.S. attempt to broaden the negotiations to include U.S. concerns about North Korea's deployment of 1 million troops near the Demilitarized Zone.
Danielsson said the EU delegation touched on the human rights issue in general terms with Kim. Kim, he said, promised to open a human rights dialogue with the EU. Danielsson acknowledged there is a "wide gap" on human rights between the EU and North Korea, widely regarded as one of the world's most repressive police states.
By Joe Yong-hee
, Joong-Ang Ilbo, 6 May 2001
Several weeks have passed since Tim Peters returned from a humanitarian trip to China, and he sits in a spanking new Starbucks in Seoul. Urgency in his voice, he flips through photographs from his trip. "I can't give you this picture," he says, pausing at a photo of a girl being examined by a doctor in the middle of a forest. A North Korean refugee hiding in China, she appears a little tense. "Her face is too visible," Mr. Peters says. After flipping through several more photos, he finds one in which her face is obscured.
Mr. Peters is the founder of Ton-A-Month Club and Helping Hands Korea. Ton-a-Month Club, supported by Koreans and expatriates, raises money and sends food and clothing aid to North Korea. Recently it has expanded its services to helping North Korean refugees.
Most of the photos Mr. Peters shared were from the border region in northeastern China, which is usually the first stop on a grueling journey out of North Korea. During the famine in the mid-1990s, the number of North Korean farmers and workers crossing the border and hiding in the area soared. Since they are illegal residents in China, it is hard to gauge their exact numbers; estimates range from 10,000 to 30,000.
Now that the food situation in North Korea has improved somewhat, there are fewer refugees making this trek. But according to Mr. Peters, the bounty for information on them has gone up. "It's more risky for them to be there than before," he said.
On his most recent trip to the border area, he took with him five other people, including Norbert Vollertsen, a German doctor who was expelled from North Korea on Dec. 30, 2000. His team supplied medical care to both North Korean refugees and Chinese residents, and connected people with safe houses, food and a network of helpers Mr. Peters calls "Robin Hoods." In the four days he was there, the series of events Mr. Peters witnessed was so intense that, he said, it made the trip feel more like "three months."
Dr. Vollertsen examined a Chinese man who had been stabbed in his left eye and a North Korean whose belly had been slashed. Mr. Peters listened as two North Korean brothers were briefed on how to leave China. He recalls one of the brothers saying, "We know the border police are only one step behind us, but we'd rather die trying." "It was so incredibly sobering," Mr. Peters said.
Among the other creature comforts he took with him was a keyboard that his son had donated. "On my previous trip, I heard some of the children wanted something musical," Mr. Peters said.
Mr. Peters first came to Korea as a "free-lance" Christian missionary in the mid-1970s. Not associated with any denomination, he now makes a living as an editor and speech writer.
On his first visit to Korea, North Korea was far from Mr. Peters' mind. He focused on helping poverty-stricken South Koreans all over the world. He also married a Korean woman. "My calling from the mid-70s has been Korea," Mr. Peters said. "Some people ask, 'Is it because your wife is Korean?' I really don't think so."
Ton-a-Month Club began "with a little prayer meeting," Mr. Peters said. News about the famine in North Korea had hit the media. One day, Mr. Peters, his wife and son happened to be reading Proverbs 25:21: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; and if he's thirsty, give him something to drink." The verse prompted the three to start mobilizing food aid.
Since 1996, Ton-a-Month Club has supplied clothing and more than 50 tons of food to North Koreans in North Korea and China. The group has its own delivery system. Now that the organization's scope has widened, the name of the organization has evolved to Ton-a-Month Club and Helping Hands Korea.
After the trip to China, Mr. Peters organized a fundraising concert by Irish performers Andrea Rice and Fee Dobbin at the Seoul Chosun Hotel on April 29. The concert raised 2.5 million won ($1,900). The next fundraising event will be a salsa party on May 26. For more information, e-mail [email protected].
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