Planners of an effort to ship food and medicines to famine victims in North Korea have revised their timetable and now hope to have the vessel in Korean waters by late March instead of mid-February, said a director of the relief drive.

A need for further donations of fertilizer and certain medical items are among factors that forced the schedule change, according to Bob Farr, a director of the Christian Alliance for Humanitarian Aid, Inc., which has mounted the relief drive in close cooperation with the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM).

Fertilizer will make up about one-third of the ship's eventual cargo, and is seen as crucial to helping the North Koreans grow their own food, Farr said. The Alliance hopes companies that make fertilizer and its ingredients, will come forward with large donations. "That's really what's holding us up," said Farr. "When we get that done, we're ready to go."

Also pending are negotiations with North Korea over what rules will govern the visit of the ship, the Spirit of Grace, a 340-foot, World War II-era freighter now docked in Houston, Texas.

Famine has killed between 900,000 and 2.4 million people in North Korea in the last three years, according to estimates by United States officials. The famine set in after severe floods and drought ravaged the country for three years, starting in 1995. The United Methodist Committee On Relief (UMCOR) has been active since 1996 in aiding the country.

Plans call for loading the Grace with 4 million pounds of fertilizer and 80,000 zip- lock plastic bags of seeds. The Alliance has already accumulated the needed seeds. Each bag contains ten packets of seeds. North Korean families would receive a bag of ten seed packets and a 50 pound bag of fertilizer. "Then the family can grow a pretty significant volume that can be used in the future to feed themselves," Farr said.

Sixty-thousand boxes of food, each weighing 40 pounds, will also be aboard.

Lashed to the decks will be 14 steel containers -- 13 packed with medical supplies intended for each of North Korea's provincial orphanages. The other container will hold equipment and supplies for a bakery to be set up in the country. That shipment is from the Manna Project, coordinated through a Korean Presbyterian church in Houston, Farr said.

To complete its fertilizer cargo, the Alliance needs donations of 1 million pounds each of potash and urea, Farr said. "If we could find a fertilizer company that would donate either bulk or bag fertilizer, ready to go, that would be very helpful to us. The formula of the fertilizer we're trying to mix is 21-17-17. But if someone already has fertilizer that is close to that or reasonably close to that and would like to donate it to us, we'd love to have it."

"And if there's someone who has plant food that's already mixed, that's complete, we can use that also," Farr said.

Quantities of medicine and medical supplies have already been donated, but some items are still needed, said Farr. Needed items include saline solution, iodine, bags, tubes, and needles for intravenous feeding, and skins creams, especially those that kill funguses.

Alliance planners want the North Korean authorities to spell out in writing what timetable and other rules would apply to the Grace while in North Korea, said Farr. The North Koreans have given verbal okay to having the Grace dock at the port of Chongjin in the northeast of the country, but that and other details have yet to be put in writing, Farr said.

The Rev. Dr. Michael Hahm, GBGM executive secretary for justice and advocacy, has been asked to negotiate the written terms.

Because the Grace's mission is humanitarian, the Alliance wants the North Korean government to agree not to impose any financial charges during the ship's visit, Farr said. It also wants to use the port's water and electricity at no cost, and to properly dispose of its garbage without charge.

For vessels engaged in normal commercial traffic, costs imposed by port authorities may typically include arrival charges, import duties and similar charges on the cargo itself, as well as separate fees for the pilot who guides the ship to its berth, for tugboats, and for the dockworkers and equipment involved in unloading the ship, Farr said.

"That's standard practice when a commercial ship goes into a port," Farr said. "Since we are a mercy ship on a humanitarian mission we don't have to want to have to pay those fees," he said.

Once all needed cargo, including the fertilizer and medical items, have been collected, GBGM officials will wrap up final details with the governments of the United States and North Korea, said The Reverend Lloyd Rollins, UMCOR's assistant general secretary for emergency services.

The U.S. Treasury Department must issue an export license for the trip, said Rollins. But the license won't be issued until the agency is given a precise and complete list of the ship's cargo, including the money value of the items aboard, he said. "Every single thing that's going to be shipped, must be contained -- with value, on this license," Rollins said.

Under the new timetable, said Farr, the ship will leave Houston sometime in late January and after about 20 days reach Los Angeles, California. There, for about one week, it will take on more cargo, then for about 30 days steam for Chongjin, reaching there sometime in late March, Farr said.

United Methodists within the Texas Annual Conference began the relief drive and have since been joined by other Christian denominations through the Alliance.