FOCUS: Web Aid By ROY K. AKAGAWA Asahi Evening News/Feb. 5, 1997 Watching as the food shortage in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) grew steadily worse, journalist * Bernard Krisher felt frustrated with the lack of response from the world's governments. So he decided to do something concrete: he started a project to provide food to the North Koreans himself. TD "I want to show that you have to separate the politics from a situation in which people are in need," said Krisher, who has lived in Tokyo since 1962 and was Newsweek bureau chief for close to two decades. He said in spite of political differences between nations, the people who suffer from natural disasters and who need help are the same as us all. Krisher has become deeply involved in humanitarian projects in recent years. He set up a home page on the Internet in 1995 to emphasize the plight of North Koreans, whose harvests were hit hard by severe flooding that summer. Since then, he has made two trips to North Korea and plans to return again in March with rice, powdered milk and, hopefully, a vehicle that can be used as an ambulance or for other purposes to help rural residents in medical need. He is seeking to raise $100,000 (12 million yen) by the time he leaves for this trip to pay for the about 260 tons of rice he plans to provide in addition to other supplies. He is now looking for a cheap source of rice outside of Japan that can ship the foodstuffs directly to North Korea. Krisher said his project differs from other international aid organizations because he takes a hands-on approach. "Small as my project is, contributors can be sure that their donations go to where they are intended," he said. Krisher insisted on accompanying the truck caravans that transport the rice to the needy towns and villages in the floodstricken areas, despite resistance from North Korean officials. He has also photographed and videotaped his past distribution trips and put the visual evidence on his Internet home page to show contributors--and potential donators--that their money is used for its intended purpose. Recent reports by the United Nations World Food Program, headquartered in Rome, indicate that North Korea will need continuing outside food assistance this year because the area has undergone two successive years of flooding. A joint Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Program mission to North Korea last November estimated that the Communist state would need 2.36 million metric tons of food imports in 1997 because of flooding and underlying agricultural production problems. The World Food Program report added that since North Korea has little foreign exchange and access to credit, large-scale international food assistance is vital in 1997 to meet even minimum nutritional requirements for the North Korea people. The International Federation of Red Crosses also reported last week that North Koreans were now down to a daily ration of rice of 100 grams, about one-fourth the minimum daily nutritional requirement. Krisher plans to make more trips to North Korea to bring food. In fact, he says, he may have to return sooner depending on what he finds on this upcoming trip. "If I see people starving, I will be motivated to take more action," he said. In a trip in March 1996, he visited several areas where he saw malnourished children, which convinced him to bring more powdered milk this year. The milk will be fed to children whose mothers were themselves malnourished while pregnant. In the March trip Krisher also hopes to take along a Toyota all-purpose van. The van is in place of an ambulance that a group of Korean doctors living in the United States had wanted to donate to North Korea. The doctors learned about Krisher's project through his home page. They asked him to help them send the ambulance to North Korea because legal restrictions in the United States were making it difficult for them to do it themselves. Although Krisher is facing some bureaucratic difficulties in Japan in purchasing the van, he hopes to overcome those hurdles by March. He wants to fill the van with medical supplies as well. Few problems Despite North Korea's image as a rigidly controlled state, Krisher said, he has encountered few problems in bringing in rice. "(The cooperation) was remarkable. They just seem to trust me because I have been there several times and I have never turned around and done something against them," Krisher said. He pays for his gasoline and other expenses while in North Korea so he is not a burden on his hosts. The people he has met in the North have also welcomed him, he said, and he finds North Koreans to be a warm people. Krisher attributes the hard-line image North Korea projects to the world to the Communist government's inability to communicate effectively--evidenced by the propaganda that comes out of Pyongyang. While he has not encountered much interference within North Korea, Krisher said he has been disappointed in the lack of cooperation so far from the government in Seoul. As a prime example, he cites the legal restrictions in the Republic of Korea (South Korea) which prohibit citizens from assisting North Korea except through the South Korean Red Cross. He added that the South Korean Red Cross has provided assistance in the form of clothing--of which the North already has enough--instead of giving rice. Krisher said among the most courageous of the contributors to his project have been South Koreans who have risked legal persecution to donate to his cause. Although a large percentage of the donations are from Japanese, Krisher said the use of the home page to appeal for donations has led to contributions from people in the United States and Portugal among other countries. In late December, Pyongyang's apology for last year's invasion by a submarine into South Korean waters broke the ice for talks on international food aid. The possibility of government assistance from Japan and the United States has also increased. Krisher said he plans to continue with his project until international assistance grows large enough to meet the need in North Korea or until the harvests recover enough to enable the nation to feed its own people. Individuals interested in contributing to Krisher's appeal can send their donations via bank transfer to North Korean Flood Relief, account number 748849 (futsu yokin), Hiroo Garden Hills Branch, Sumitomo Bank. Access the home page at: http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/mrosin/flood/.