PORTLAND, Ore. - A four-person Mercy Corps delegation returned this week from North Korea, following a seven-day trip to the closed-off country that included visits to the ravaged flood zone. The group says emergency aid is still critical, and the country will require significant, long-term outside assistance in order to provide for its people.
The delegation found that medicines are the top priority but additional needs for resources such as food are still being assessed. "Every medical professional we talked to said they needed medicines," said Jim White, Mercy Corps' senior director of program operations. "Many villages either don't have the antibiotics that they need, or they've totally depleted their supplies."
In response, the delegation hand-delivered more than $13 million worth of medicines specifically requested from North Korean officials. The medicines included cipro and erythromycin to help combat water-borne diseases like dysentery, and eye, ear and skin infections.
"All of these are major health problems associated with water contamination after floods," White noted.
Last month's floods wreaked havoc on North Korea, a country already prone to food shortages. The United Nations fears catastrophic crop loss, and local sources estimate 600 people dead, another 100,000 made homeless, and 900,000 affected. The delegation visited several hard-hit areas and witnessed extensive flood damage first-hand.
"The flood damage we saw - houses damaged and destroyed, crops washed away, bridges knocked out - was overwhelming," said Mort Anoushiravani, Mercy Corps' director of infrastructure, and the former head of the Portland Water Bureau. "On our first, day we visited Bongsan County, where nearly 6,000 houses were badly damaged. We saw whole villages that were basically wiped off the map."
"This kind of major natural disaster is simply too much for North Korea to respond to alone," Anoushiravani stated. "Their government has asked for help because they face a long road ahead."
Mercy Corps' North Korea flood response has been supported by a variety of sources. The US Agency for International Development's Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance gave Mercy Corps a $50,000 grant to fund the purchase of antibiotics. A private Canadian organization generously donated more than $12.5 million worth of medications, and the express and logistics company DHL provided a very substantial contribution to cover shipping expenses. Nike donated more than $255,000 in clothing, and is generously covering the transportation costs for these goods, which are due to arrive in the next few weeks.
Mercy Corps is committed to helping the people of North Korea with programs to improve their food security. The agency has worked with vulnerable North Korean families and communities since 1996, striving to help meet health and nutritional needs as well as collaborating on long-term agricultural and economic solutions.
The organization's co-founder, Ells Culver, reached out to the North Korean people after the country suffered years of drought, flooding and food shortages. That diplomacy has led to an extraordinary partnership that includes agricultural exchanges between North Korea and the United States' Pacific Northwest. Over the course of more than 20 visits to North Korea, Culver repeatedly demonstrated his belief that caring assistance would lead to positive change.
HOW TO HELP:
Mercy Corps
North KoreaFloods
Dept. NR
PO Box 2669
PortlandOR 97208
1-800-852-2100
Mercy Corps works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided $1.3 billion in assistance to people in 100 nations. Supported by headquarters offices in North America, Europe and Asia, the agency's unified global programs employ 3,400 staff worldwide and reach nearly 14.4 million people in more than 35 countries.