MCC to aid North Korean farm community

AKRON, PA.

While Mennonite Central Committee aid to famine-racked North Korea has been limited to emergency food and medicine so far, a newly-approved project will help the country recover to feed itself.

Sambong farming community in North Korea will receive $ 275,000 for the purchase of seeds and fertilizer for fall vegetables and winter barley, small animals, and spare parts and replacements for farm equipment.

Sambong, situated on 5600 acres in North Korea's western plains "rice bowl", is home to 2300 people. It normally grows enough food both for its own needs and other areas. But it is now clear that the 1997 harvest will be extremely poor due to drought, says Ann Martin, MCC director for East Asia programs.

MCC will also provide rice, oil, sugar and other essential foods to help feed Sambong's infants, children and the elderly until the October harvest. The additional project in the community is an 18-month commitment, at the invitation of the American Friends Service Committee.

Since April 1996 MCC has provided emergency food and medical assistance worth about $ 2.8 million Cdn. to North Korea in response to urgent food shortages and an alarming deterioration in the overall well-being of the population.

--MCC news release

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