North Korean Diary 09: Skin-and-Bone Children in Huichon Pyongyang, North Korea, Sunday, April 20, 1997 I left for Huichon at 3.p. yesterday with two officials, Mr. Jong Thae Yang and Mrs. Choe Ra Hwa. We loaded one car up with 30 cartons of powdered milk for babies. I paid for the gasoline for the two cars. We arrived two hours later at Myohyangsan and stayed at the Hyangsan Hotel. On the way, I noticed farmers working diligently on the fields planting seedlings of rice. They used simple hand-held tools. I saw very few farm animals and no agricultural machinery. This morning we left at 9 a.m. The road to Huichon from Myohyangsan was unpaved. Hundreds of young men and women were working on the road and roadside. It took about 45 minutes to arrive at the Huichon City Hospital. I met with Dr. Cha Gi Chol, the same doctor my brother and father visited last year. I told him I brought 30 cartons of powdered milk and he thanked me for all of the direct contributions my father made to the hospital. I asked him what happened to the ten boilers which were broken two winters ago for which my father gave him $10,000 to fix. He said that with that money he bought ten boilers. Four boilers which heat up the inpatient rooms were installed (which he showed me) but he ran out of money to complete the installation of the other six which would heat outpatient rooms and needed an additional $4,000 to $5,000 to buy ten tons of pipes. I asked him what happened to the malnourished children my father and brother saw. He said they all recovered and eventually went home. He said right now out of about 8,700 children under the age of six, there are 140 in the worst degree of malnutrition. 300 are in the second degree (UNICEF told me there were more than 750) and 3,000 are in the first degree. He attributed the malnutrition to the shortage of food and also to the contamination of the water caused by the flood which resulted in many cases of diarrhea. I asked him what he would do if he had $20,000 to $30,000. He said he would first complete the reconstruction of the hospital. Secondly, he would like to buy food for the patients. Patients need nutritious treatment at the moment he is unable to provide that. Thirdly, he said he would like to buy medical equipment and medicines. He said most of his equipment got destroyed in the flood. X-ray machines, sterilization machines and water purifiers are needed. Antibiotics such as Ampicillin, Erythromycin and Tetracycline as well as Vitamins such as Vitamin B complex and Vitamin C are necessary. I asked if there was any other kind of food besides rice and corn that was needed. He said they need oils (either animal or vegetable) and sources of protein such as beans. I asked whether it was possible for people to donate goods directly to the hospital and if the government would allow it. His answer was yes. I was then taken upstairs to a room where malnourished children were receiving treatment. There are presently 40 such children in the hospital. In the room I visited there were five. They were covered by heavy blankets but I could see that most of them were skin and bone. Their eyes looked dazed and unfocused. Some had hacking coughs. Two mothers were tending to their children. I asked if the shipment of High Energy Milk from UNICEF had arrived yet. He said it recently arrived and pointed to one emaciated child and said he had gained 500 grams since he began the treatment. I pledged the 100 tons of corn and 200 tons of rice to the children of Huichon and gave the doctor $1,000 in cash as a personal gift from my father to the hospital and told him that he should use it in a way he best saw fit. He thanked me profusely. From the hospital I went to the Huichon Hotel to meet Kim Jun Chol, the Vice Chairman of City Administration and Economic Guidance Committee. He hosted a lunch for me. I asked him if there were any adults who suffered from severe malnutrition. He said they were mostly children and the 40 worst cases were in the hospital. I asked about the size of the rice rations. He said since last October that the rations dropped from 450 grams to between 100 grams and 300 grams per day. I asked how they determined who got more or less and he said there was no exact formula. I asked him why Huichon was suffering so badly from the food shortage in comparison to other areas. He said that because Huichon was an industrial area and not an agricultural one, other cities supported Huichon with food. Since the flood badly affected North Pyongan Province, which borders Huichon and used to supply Huichon with food, their main source of food now is through the rations provided by the government. He said that the shortage of food has affected the workforce. Some are too hungry to be able to come to work. I asked whether, if the climate remained favorable, the country could quickly recover the food shortage. He said that the flood has made so much of the land not arable that extra fertilizers were needed. The government up until now provided fertilizers but that would not be sufficient for producing enough food to overcome the shortage. I told the Vice Chairman that we were donating 100 tons of corn and 200 tons of rice to the children of Huichon and he was very grateful. After lunch, I returned to Pyongyang. I dropped in briefly at the hospital to see my father who was very pleased with my trip to Huichon. I then went back to the hotel and met Mr. Kim Jung Hyon, head of the U.S. Section of the Institute for Korean Reunification. He had contacted me prior to this visit with an invitation through his Institute. He hosted a dinner for me with his colleague Mr. Jong. They both reside in Pyongyang. In the course of the dinner I asked them how much rice rations they received and they said they got 300 grams per day. Mr. Kim said that he had two growing boys and that was not sufficient so he goes to the market to buy additional rice. "But," he said, "the total amount of food is not enough and we are quickly running out." He said that the total need for rice is 2.5 million tons. The country can supply 1 million tons but the additional 1.5 millions has to be supplemented from the outside. Because the need is so great he said they need support at a governmental level from both the U.S. and South Korea. Debbie Krisher