South Korean churches urge food aid for North Korea

TOKYO (RNS/ENI) A South Korean group of churches is urging its member congregations and organizations to join a campaign to give North Korean children milk and bread “without any precondition.” The National Council of Churches in Korea said it would mobilize its churches for “urgent support to people in North Korea in the situation of […]

TOKYO (RNS/ENI) A South Korean group of churches is urging its member congregations and organizations to join a campaign to give North Korean children milk and bread “without any precondition.”

The National Council of Churches in Korea said it would mobilize its churches for “urgent support to people in North Korea in the situation of the present critical antagonistic political arrangement on the Korean peninsula …”

The council said the campaign is the result of discussions with its North Korean counterpart, the Korean Christian Federation, held in Beijing last March.


The campaign includes a Week of National Reconciliation in June that encourages churches to have special worship services with prayers for the people of North Korea. The campaign will send 20-kilogram packs of flour and 8,000 cans of powdered milk.

Tensions around the Korean Peninsula have heightened in recent months. North Korea launched a long-range rocket on April 5 and engaged in a second nuclear test on May 25, an action that has led to tougher United Nations sanctions on the isolated state.

“Any humanitarian assistance from South Korea has completely ceased because of the stringent relationship between the North and the South and 330,000 tons of expected assistance from the U.S.A. was stopped” because of the nuclear situation, the South Korean churches said.

The food shortage has been particularly tough on children, pregnant women, and the elderly, the South Korean churches said. The undernourishment of North Korean children will cause “a vicious circle, downgrading their physical growth as well as their ability to study and learning quality.”

The South Korean church group includes Presbyterians, Methodists, Anglicans, evangelicals, Eastern Orthodox, the Salvation Army and the Assemblies of God as members.

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