Franklin Graham, the son of famous American evangelist Billy Graham, is in Pyongyang and meeting with foreign minister Pak Ui-Chun. AFP reports:
The preacher heads Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical Christian aid organisation that was one of five US groups to send representatives on a visit to the isolated communist state in February.
Samaritan’s Purse said in April that parts of North Korea were expected to run out of food in less than two months due to a poor harvest even if foreign donors agreed to provide assistance.
It said that a harsh winter had reduced crop yield by up to half and that some people were already eating grass, leaves and tree bark.
The United States and South Korea have been cautious over reports of dire food shortages in the North, with some officials suspecting that the communist state is exaggerating the problem to win assistance.
North Korea must be loving all the humanitarian aid attention they’ve been receiving lately. Former president Carter last week, Graham this week… The UN’s World Food Programme has kicked off an emergency campaign to send aid, and probably many other NGOs are rushing to help as well. If only the aid could actually reach the starving masses it is intended for…
Source: AFP
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Note: My break from updating is over and I’ve come back with a few ideas for running this blog a little more efficiently… which means more posts, better posts, more consistent formatting, as well as streamlining posts concurrently with Twitter (and I may just venture into Facebook territory as well). I also plan to spend some more time updating the Movies/Books pages as well as a Downloads page that I’ll be putting up soon (mmm… DPRK mp3s and Red Star Linux isos!)
