January 26, 1996

Mr. Winston Lord Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs Department of State Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. Lord,

You may remember me when I met you at the Embassy in Beijing on the way back from a trip to Pyongyang in 1990. I am a former Newsweek Tokyo bureau chief and established an NGO in Cambodia four years ago to help in various projects there including the publ ication of The Cambodia Daily, a non profit newspaper. Recently I have turned my attention to providing relief for the North Korean flood victims and launched a Home Page on the Internet for this purpose. The access number is:

http://shrine.cyber.ad.jp/mrosin/flood

I went to North Korea in November to distribute clothes, blankets shoes and powdered milk directly to flood victims in the rural areas. Documentation and photos of this trip appear on the home page.

I had opened bank accounts in Washington (Crestar Bank) and in Tokyo to receive contributions from the public but discovered just prior to my departure for Pyongyang, when I wanted to withdraw the funds from the bank that the bank informed me they had been ordered by the Treasury Department to block the account. I had received no formal notice. These funds would have purchased powdered milk for infants, many of whom are suffering from malnutrition.

I have written three letters to a Mr. Newcomb at Treasury requesting permission to send humanitarian relief to North Korea and to unblock this account, including two registered letters, but there has been no response. I visited the State Department to try to discuss this with the officials in the Korean section but was unable to arrange an appointment with the director of the Section and a lower level official listened patiently but was noncommittal. There appeared to be no sympathy for the flood victims nor my efforts to retrieve my own deposit in the bank and whatever contributions may have been deposited.

I cannot comprehend such an attitude on the part of my government that has a long humanitarian tradition. People like me should be encouraged not regarded as law breakers. I understand that the United States is beginning to realize the serious situation in North Korea. I am returning to North Korea again in late February when I will personally distribute rice to the villages again with funds collected over the Internet and from generous donors in Japan and also from Seoul National University students and faculty, and from church groups there.

I would like to request your cooperation in helping obtain the permission from the United States government to use the funds from this account and other donations to help feed the victims, particularly children, in these areas. A number of potential Ameri can donors are withholding contributions until I receive such permission. My deadline for ordering rice from abroad is February 10. Your cooperation in helping me attain the necessary permissions and unblocking the account is greatly appreciated.

You may fax me at: +81-3-3486-6789.

Best regards,

Bernard Krisher

United States Department of State

Washington, DC 20520

February 15, 1996

Mr. Bernard Krisher
4-1-7-605 Hiroo
Shibuya-ky, Tokyo (150), Japan

Dear Mr. Krisher:

Winston Lord has asked me to reply to your letter of January 26 concerning funds for humanitarian relief in North Korea.

My staff has kept me abreast of your work. When you visited last year, I had a prior engagement which prevented our meeting. However, I was confident that others in the office who are more familiar with humanitarian aid procedures than I am would give you the advice you sought.

Our office has worked very closely with the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Commerce Department's Bureau of Export Administration (BXA) regarding donations to North Korea for humanitarian purposes. BXA regulates exports of U.S. origin goods and technology; OFAC regulates all other transactions. Our general approach has been to liberalize licensing policies to facilitate such assistance either in the form of humanitarian goods directly to North Korea or of funds to specified international organizations engaged in North Korea relief efforts. However, all such assistance must be provided in accordance with U.S. Law. As a standard practice, we refer all potential donors t OFAC or BXA so that proper licenses are obtained. We referred your daughter to OFAC in summer 1995 for advice concerning your plans to solicit contributions for North Korea via the Internet. We also sent a copy of the OFAC regulations to her by fax.

Your inquiries raise two types of issues -- (i) those dealing with the licensing of future activities and (ii) those relating to possible legal problems,ms arising out of your activities to date. On the licensing issue, the State Department plays a role in reviewing your request for a license to provide humanitarian aid to the DPRK. Upon completion of our review, we will advise the Treasury Department concerning our position. OFAC will notify you of the terms and conditions of any license issued. However, you should not anticipate approval of direct contributions of cash to North Korea.

In regard to the review of actions you have already taken, the State Department plays no advisory role. This review for compliance wit U.S. law will be handled by OFAC officials.

I hope this information has been helpful to you.

Sincerely,

David G. Brown
Director
Office of Korean Affairs

To: Mr. David G. Brown
Director
Office of Korean Affairs
United States Department of State
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Mr. Brown:

Thank you for your response of February 15 to my fax to Winston Lord dated January 26.

Thank you also for the clarifications.

As you know I have sent three letters, two of which were certified or registered, to Mr. Newcomb, who I was told is the responsible person at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. I wrote him based on what your Department advised my daughter to relay to me. However I have received no response. A call to his office last year confirmed however that my communications had been received in the office but the staff was too busy with other requests to respond. I then wrote again but there still has not been any response yet.

I have not contacted the Commerce Department's Bureau of Export Administration (BXA) because I do not reside in the U.S. and have not yet nor do I plan to export any U.S.-origin goods nor technology to North Korea. The main problem is famine and the focus of my concern is getting rice to the civilians in the flood-affected areas. The cheapest rice is available in Asia. It is also more economical to transport rice within Asia.

In the absence of a response from the Treasury Department within a reasonable time and clear alternate guidance from State, and given that this is an emergency situation where people are on the verge of famine, I could not wait to see people starve to get permission which might come too late to halt the starvation. One is expected to respond to an SOS call on the high seas without questioning who is on the ship. I therefore sought guidance from President Carter's former National Security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Dr. Brzezinski met me and informally reasoned that as I was not running this activity in the United States but acting as a messenger for Japanese yen donations, this would not likely fall under the jurisdiction of The U.S. Treasury. I have also been a permanent resident of Japan for more than 30 years.

I have not spent any U.S. funds yet nor sent any products made in the U.S. nor from the U.S. to North Korea. So far all the goods shipped have been used clothing, blankets and shoes from Japanese donors and shipped from Japan consigned to me and picked up by me at the port of Wonsan to be then distributed personlly by me to civilians in the rural areas. The funds collected and spent have been in yen deposited into a Japanese bank and withdrawn in yen from the Japanese bank to purchase powdered milk and shoes.

We now plan to use new yen received to purchase rice coming from Thailand or China. The distribution will be similar.

I believe, Dr. Brzezinski's advice is based on a knowledge of the U.S. laws and he did not discourage me from this activity. I am a survivor of the Holocaust and I know how many of us 50 years later can never forget people who found a way to help Jews, trapped in Germany, to survive. It is primarily this experience and the memory that nine of my father's siblings perished in concentration camps and only we luckily survived, which has motivated me to help these people similarly trapped. I have personally met many of the flood victims in November in the villages when their "kitchen pantries" still had a small supply of food but is now quickly running out without hope of adequate replenishment. I hope the U.S. government can recognize activities such as mine and encourage rather than hamper or delay approval of the necessary papers which would unblock funds in a U.S. bank or utilization of American contributions for the rice orders.

I would also be gratified if I received the U.S. government's blessing of such activities and a godsend before I depart on my next trip in early March. Regarding licenses in the use of U.S. dollar funds to purchase food, I am requesting such permission may be conditional that all my donations in North Korea be limited to my personal distribution directly to groups of civilian farmers in the flood areas and that I provide videoed evidence. Those are also the conditions I impose upon myself.

I have a clear conscience that I am acting both the way God would wish me to act while remaining cognizant of the U.S. laws. I have neither sent any American products to North Korea nor sent "American" dollars to North Korea.

I am requesting however the American government consents to utilizing such dollars which have been deposited in the blocked Crestar account from Americans, or non-Americans overseas, to purchase powdered milk (infant formula) for shipment to North Korea from Japan or China. These particular funds would be used only for such a purpose.

I understand the Treasury Department likely would not be concerned about the purchase of rice where Japanese yen, collected from Japanese donors in Japan , is used.

I commend the American government's contribution of $2 million for the flood victims and hope the public and private sector can now work jointly to avert a famine which will cause severe suffering to innocent civilians.

Finally I wish to stress again that all of the Internet campaign's donations go directly to the civilian population in North Korea. On my previous trip and subsequent trips I have and I will personally supervise and participate in the distribution of rice and other donations to the civilian populations in the villages in the flood affected areas (Unpa, Rinsan, Sinuiju, etc.). All such distribution will be documented by still and videos taken by my son who is accompanying me as a cameraman. They will be provided free to TV stations which wish to show them and the stills, along with my daily reports, will appear on our Internet HomePage. This project has full transparency and can be tracked everywhere in the world on real time.

I feel it is one of the best uses of the Internet in the new era of free and unfettered information in the shrunken world we now inhabit.

Sincerely yours,

Bernard Krisher