First Food shipment to North Korea, 2012

Dear Friends of the Ecumenical Forum for Korea,
Warm greetings from Seoul!
I am pleased to inform you that we completed to send the 1st food shipment in 2012 to KCF for people in North Korea.

The Ecumenical Forum held a ceremony of sending humanitarian aid to North Korea from Dandong, China on the 15th of March, 2012. One hundred fifty-three tons of flour was sent to Korea Christian Federation by the Amity Foundation. This aid was made possible because of the funds collected by National Council of Churches in Korea in their Christmas appeal.

In May, 2011 NCCK also sent humanitarian aid(172 tons of flour) to North Korea through the Amity Foundation because at the time the government prohibited the sending of humanitarian aid to North Korea due to the incidents of the 'ROKS Cheonan' and 'Yeonpyeong Island'. Later in the same year, NCCK was able to deliver 180 tons of flour to North Korea through a meeting at Kaesung with the permission of the government.

Because of the strict regulations of the government with respect to humanitarian aid, NCCK was not able to directly carry out this humanitarian aid to North Korea this month. NCCK was represented by the Ecumenical Forum who depended on the Amity Foundation for the aid. The Amity Foundation contacted the Korea Christian Federation, and the flour will be distributed to some nurseries in North Korea through the Korea Christian Federation. The Amity Foundation has asked the Korea Christian Federation to send a list of the receiving facilities. On behalf of the Ecumenical Forum, 6 participants of NCCK and its member denominations went to China to participate in the ceremony of delivering humanitarian aid.

As Jesus loves the world unconditionally, so NCCK will continuously try to resolve hunger of North Korea with the spirit of Jesus. We believe the saving of life is more important than the issues of our government.

With many thanks for your concern and contributions.
Heawon Chae