Hong Kong Caritas: "We keep contacts with Pyongyang alive"
Kathy Zellweger, director of the "North Korea" Caritas project gives AsiaNews her reactions to the order from North Korea to stop food aid.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - Choe Su Hon, the North Korean deputy foreign affairs minister today called on the United Nations to stop food aid supplies for his country by the end of the year. According to the Pyongyang diplomat, the food situation in North Korea has "improved" and "the attitude of the United States causes offence"; the latter have been accused to wanting to politicize aid by linking it to respect for human rights. After these declarations, South Korea announced that "it will continue to send supplies outside UN projects".
Kathy Zellweger is director of International Cooperation of Caritas Hong Kong, and she heads the Caritas North Korea programme. She confirmed to AsiaNews that food supplies for the population of Pyongyang are no longer wanted, however she specified: "They asked to turn projects of food distribution into internal development projects. This was a request directed not only to the United Nations but to all organisations working in the country at the moment."
Caritas in Hong Kong was the first NGO to offer to go to North Korea to help the starving population in the mid-nineties.
"Personally, I think humanitarian aid and development projects should always go together. After these statements from the Pyongyang leadership I think it is very important to keep contacts alive," said Zellweger. "The real problem is not only food distribution but also social differences. If a person has money, he can buy goods on the market; if he has no money, he cannot. On the other hand, every society has its vulnerable groups and North Korea is no exception. I am worried about food for sick people, children and the elderly."
The director said she could not confirm or deny assertions of an "improved" situation because "exact information about international food supplies is not known and so it is very difficult to establish how much foreign aid the North Koreans actually need." On the decision of Seoul, she said that "South Korea has always supplied food aid to the northern part of the peninsula, but they do not consider it as a humanitarian gesture: the two populations are united by profound ties."
It is too early to identify the approach which Caritas will adopt to operate within the new parameters set by Pyongyang: at the moment, the Catholic organization supports people with disabilities, the elderly and children apart from collaborating in the development of an internal agricultural framework. "The important thing," added the director, "is to remain in daily contact. A way to move ahead will be found."
The Democratic Republic of Korea has been afflicted by a food and health crisis for more than 10 years. No one knows the true death toll of a drought which hit the country between 1995 and 1997. According to international organizations, more than two million people have died of hunger in North Korea in recent years. Profound economic problems, international political tensions, natural disasters and a failed agriculture policy are principal causes of a continued humanitarian emergency which crucifies the North Korean people.
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