TEXT OF PRESS RELEASE .................................................. Internet Appeal for North Korean Flood Victims 4-1-7-605 Hiroo,Shibuyaku,Tokyo Tel 3486-4337 Fax: 81-3-3486-6789 e-mail:bernie@media.mit.edu URL: http://race.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~mrosin/flood/index.html [This replace site at http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/mrosin/flood] BERNARD KRISHER Chairman FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 2, 1996 INTERNET CAMPAIGN TO AVERT NORTH KOREAN FAMINE, WILL DISTRIBUTE RICE DIRECTLY TO HUNGRY FARMERS With an imminent famine threatening North Korea and three major donor nations, Japan and the U.S. denying significant emergency aid at the behest of South Korea, a private humanitarian group has stepped up requests for international donations of rice through an Internet Home page. The rice will be distributed directly to the flood victims in the first week of March. Bernard Krisher, 64, a Tokyo-based American journalist, who has been involved in humanitarian activities in Cambodia and was a former Newsweek Tokyo bureau chief, launched an Internet Home Page (http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/mrosin/flood) [Note- New Site resides at http://race.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~mrosin/flood/index.html] in September to elicit donations for the 500,000 victims hit by severe floods last summer which destroyed homes, schools and much of North Korea's infrastructure. Krisher collected 1,400 boxes of clothes and blankets, and more than $20,000 in cash which was used to purchase powdered milk and shoes. He then visited the flood areas for two weeks in November with his son, Joseph, who videoed the flood damage. They directly donated these goods to the victims in villages in Unpa, Rinsan and Sinuiju. The latter is near the Chinese border, across the Yalu river, where the rice paddies were inundated with sand, turning one of the country's lushest rice growing areas into a virtual desert. Krisher was told there would be no rice crop this year while rice storage in many of the villages was down from a one to five- week supply. Nearly all the rice which had been stored in silos in those areas was also destroyed by the floods. The North Korean Flood Rehabilitation Committee, in response to a faxed request from Krisher in January disclosed North Korea had remaining stocks of rice through March when a serious food shortage would hit the nation unless there was a massive inflow of international aid in the form of rice --but such aid has not materialized. Krisher noted that the South Korean government "has not only halted any humanitarian rice shipments recently but successfully blocked Korean citizens from sending anything more than socks or cups of noodle, and only through the South Korean Red Cross, which is tantamount to giving a starving child a nice toy, instead of providing what it wants and needs to survive: rice. They have not only refused to help their brethren across the DMZ, but successfully stopped both the Japanese and U.S.. governments from following their humanitarian instincts to help those people in need. Ten million South Koreans have relatives in the South and many of those are in the affected areas." In contrast to South Korea, citizens of Switzerland, Germany and Scandinavian countries, who have a long tradition of non partisan humanitarian work, have warmly supported their governments' generous contributions and also actively collect cash donations for the flood victims during Sunday services. For his next trip in March, Krisher, has already collected $35,000 toward the purchase of rice. He will order rice either through the World Food program (WFP) or the (North) Korean Cereal Import and Export Corp., which delivers the rice to Nampo port at $250 a ton, consigned to Krisher. One ton of rice feeds 75 persons for one month. Krisher hopes to collect $100,000 toward the purchase of rice before leaving Tokyo on March 1. He will receive the rice personally at Nampo and then hire trucks in North Korea to personally deliver and donate it to affected flood victims in the villages of Unpa, Rinsan and Sinuiju, which he visited before, and to other districts where farmers face a harsh winter and are threatened by the spread of contageous diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia if the shortage of food results in malnutrition. Most Koreans are already on half rations. The farmers who used to receive a healthy ration of 900 grams a day now receive only 415 grams and children even less. The North Koreans have positively accepted Krisher's plan for direct distribution, assuring that the donations will reach those for whom it is intended. Krisher will personally witness and document through film that these donations will go to the civilian population in the flood areas. He will tell the North Korean recipients publicly the names of the major donors and their organizations and record it onto the video to be presented to the donors on his return, as he did on his November visit. Krisher said if North Korea were any other country, less isolated, there would have been a massive international donation movement to avert the famine and the threat of accompanying contagious diseases threatened to spread. Despite the South Korean government ban, a South Korean Christian group, Hope International at the First Church of Christ in Seoul sponsored a marathon and collected $7,500 which it donated to this campaign. Students at Seoul National University also sent in $1,300. The Hotel Okura provided 100 blankets and Wyeth-Eisai company, 10 cartons of infant formula powdered milk. In Japan, hundreds of small donations are coming in daily. Many Japanese in their notes, say the situation in North Korea reminds them of the conditions in Japan after the war and they don't like to see innocent people suffer, politics aside. The Internet Appeal for North Korean Flood Victims can be accessed by linking to: http://race.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~mrosin/flood Donations may be deposited into either of these two accounts: Account 748849 in the Sumitomo Bank, Hiroo Garden Hills branch. Account name: North Korea Flood Relief (or) Account 748838 in the Sumitomo Bank, Hiroo Garden Hills branch. Account name: Kita Chosen Suigai Kyuen. ### NOTE TO EDITORS: PHOTOS OF FLOOD AREAS AND PREVIOUS DONATIONS ARE AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE. THEY CAN ALSO BE VIEWED ON THE INTERNET HOME PAGE http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/mrosin/flood/index.html ##### Bernard Krisher Chairman American Assistance for Cambodia & Japan Relief for Cambodia 4-1-7-605 Hiroo Shibuya-ku Tokyo, Japan (150) Tel: +81-3-3486-4337 Fax: +81-3-3486-6789 Mobile: 81-30-08-88493 (In Tokyo) 030-08-88493 Internet: bernie@mediA.mit.edu