Pacific Northwest Friends and Korea
Friends Bulletin
September 2001T he Pacific Northwest has special links to North Korea. The first nongovernmental, non-university delegation to the US was hosted by the AFSC in 1995, and their visit concluded in Seattle after ten days on the East Coast. The success of that experience helped open the way for AFSC agricultural assistance as the country looks to new, more productive agricultural methods. Since 1997 Randy Ireson of Salem, OR, has been AFSC's Development Assistance Coordinator for the DPRK.
"Three collective farms in North Korea are using new seeds and methods to improve agricultural production," says Randy, "and we have now been invited to work with a fourth farm especially on potato production," he added on returning in May from his most recent consultation. With Randy on this delegation were Thomas Lumpkin, Chair of the Department of Crop and Soil Science at Washington State University, and Lee Wheeler, an agronomist and potato specialist consulting for the Mennonite Central Committee. Randy was really excited after "the most forthcoming visit ever" and immediately started planning to host two delegations this summer of agricultural scientists and farm managers from North Korea to the US to study potato production and the use of cover crops ("green manure") in farming systems, topics central to the rehabilitation of North Korean agriculture. The quick timing would take advantage both of the growing season and the more open political/diplomatic climate.
This venture packs a double benefit, both helping to develop a more productive and environmentally friendly type of agriculture, and at the same time building greater communication between the DPRK and the US.
The delegations will visit and consult with scientists, farmers and agricultural industry representatives at several locations in the Pacific Northwest.
Since 1995, natural disasters and economic collapse have ravaged North Korea, leaving its 23 million people to contend with widespread famine and disease. Adults survive on just a few ounces of food per day, children nationwide suffer from malnutrition, and many of the elderly are reported to have simply "disappeared." Currently, food stocks from last year's harvest and international aid supplies are dangerously low; meanwhile, there is a great need for medicines and other basic supplies.
For more information about how to help with the Korean famine relief, contact the AFSC at 1501 Cherry St, Philadelphia PA 19107.