When the Rev. Mike Miller first heard about an appeal for famine relief in North Korea, one of the few remaining hardline Communist countries, he reached into his past to consider his response.
If the appeal had been for North Vietnam, another Communist country, how would he, a Vietnam veteran, react? The answer, he said in a June 18 interview, "was there was nothing I could do but help."
As chairperson of Volunteers-in-Mission for the North Texas United Methodist Annual (Regional) Conference, Miller encouraged others in this mission. The result -- when conference delegates met recently in Plano, Texas -- was the collection of nearly 500 food boxes for individual families in North Korea and $3,000 in cash.
Volunteers loaded the boxes on a truck bound for the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Depot in Baldwin, La., where a mass shipment is being gathered.
Other United Methodist annual conferences also have joined the famine relief efforts. Louisiana Conference delegates put together more than 100 boxes and pledged to send another 600 to the depot. The Rocky Mountain Conference collected 76 boxes, along with $1,000 for bulk rice and shipping expenses. The New York Conference sent a message to President Clinton, asking the U.S. to provide large-scale food relief to North Korea.
Miller, who is pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church in Wichita Falls, Texas, implemented the box campaign through district meetings and also asked every lay and clergy delegate to the annual conference meeting to bring a box. The project was endorsed by his bishop and cabinet.
Acknowledging the political and ideological disagreements between the United States and North Korea, Miller said he told those who worried about making contributions "to see how God would direct them."
The pastor, who was serving in a rural area that had gone through a severe drought when the North Korea appeal was launched, said he realized "that [famine] could happen to us. If it was my children who were starving, I would be thrilled to get a box of relief food no matter where it came from."
While the political isolation of North Korea has made it difficult to document the severity of the famine, mounting evidence is clear.
The United Nation's World Food Program, which is coordinating international relief efforts, declared the country was on the brink of starvation after a May 17-24 team visit there.
It predicted the last available government rations would run out by June 20, with only limited quantities of bartered commercial food imports expected. The World Food Program report noted that food aid supplied so far through the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOS) has only covered a small part of the need.
"The emergence of commonly recognized pre-famine indicators suggest that starvation will ensue in segments of the population before the next harvest, unless remedial action is taken urgently," the report said.
A team representing Action by Churches Together (ACT) -- a broad ecumenical coalition whose membership includes Church World Service and the United Methodist Committee on Relief -- also found evidence of severe food deficits during a May 27-June 3 visit.
The Rev. Victor Hsu, a team member and director of the Church World Service East Asia and Pacific office, said they were told that people who in January were being rationed 300 grams of food a day were now only receiving 100 grams, "which was confirmed by the families that we visited."
Compared to his visit with a National Council of Churches delegation in January, Hsu said he did feel a sense of hope because of increased vegetation. "I was able to see barley seed that was planted growing," he said. "They are making use of every bit of arable land that they have to grow food."
However, recent plantings will not relieve the current food shortage, which Hsu said was more obvious in places outside the capital of Pyongyang.
ACT now has a representative, Erich Weingartner, in place in North Korea to monitor distribution of NGO relief donations. He joins six other World Food Program monitors in this task, according to Hsu, with two more to be added in the near future.
June 20, 1997
Please give to UMCOR Advance #226435, North Korea Emergency. Give through your local United Methodist church or send financial contributions to: UMCOR, 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115. Call 1-800-554-8583 to make a credit card donation. One hundred percent of your gift goes to relief efforts in North Korea. United Methodists' generous giving to the One Great Hour of Sharing, part of their ongoing contribution to mission around the world, supplements the cost of Advance gifts.
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of the United Methodist Church.
United Methodist Committee on Relief
Room 330, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115
Voice Phone: 212-870-3816; FAX: 212-749-2641
Email: umcor@gbgm-umc.org
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