******************************* * EMERGENCY APPEAL FOR RICE * ******************************* North Korea is threatened by a famine in February unless the international community decides to allocate massive supplies of rice. The World Food Program delivered sufficient rice on November 23 to supply 500,000 flood victims with rice for 90 days. Since then no further significant pledges have been made to replenish this supply. Stored rice in many villages in the affected areas have been depleted. The WFP office has announced it will close its operation in North Korea as no more rice has been pledged and there is no sign of further aid on the horizon. The United States so far has refused to allow its stored rice with the WFP to be allocated for North Korean relief. It is also sitting on applications from U.S. humanitarian organizations which wish to send food and drugs to North Korea, including ourselves. It has blocked our U.S. bank account where contributions have been deposited. South Korea does not allow its citizens or organizations to make direct contributions to North Korea. A $3 million dollar grant by the Nippon (Sasakawa) Foundation screening committee for relief aid was reduced to $1.3 million by the Japanese government but the funds are still stuck in the bureaucracy of the International Red Cross which can't decide how to allocate them. Rice should be the priority. There is no explanations for these actions. We appeal to the Internet community not to allow a famine to occur and welcome monetary contributions to avert such a catastrophe. Farmers in Japan are encouraged to send their rice contributions to The Internet Appeal for North Korean Flood Victims c/o Bernard Krisher, 4-1-7-605 Hiroo, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. Tel: 81-3-3486-4337, fax: 81-3-3486-6789, and such contributions will be shipped from Niigata to North Korea and personally distributed by Krisher, chairman of this appeal, to villages in Unpa, Seriwon and Sinuiju counties. Verification photos such as the ones from our recent distribution trip (shown on this home page) and videos verifying the distribution only to flood victims will be placed on this Internet Home Page. Cash contributions are welcome. $250 buys one ton of rice which will feed 75 persons for one month. Please send your contributions to: Account 748849 in the Sumitomo Bank, Hiroo Garden Hills Branch. Account name: North Korea Flood Relief; or Account 748830 in the same branch, account name: Kita Chosen Suigai Kyuen. Please advise by fax or e-mail (to: bernie@media.mit.edu) your name, how much you have sent, if you wish to be listed on this page and receive an acknowledgment from the North Korean Flood Rehabilitation Committee. Thank you.