A team from Catholic aid group Corea Peace 3000 entered North Korea on Oct. 20 with trucks carrying 100 tons of flour for flood victims.
Four staff members from the organization, including two priests, accompanied the team to oversee distribution of the food in the Mt. Geumgan area, just north of theDemilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas.
The food was earmarked for distribution to 2,500 families affected by August floods.
The team, led by Corea Peace 3000 director, Father John Park Chang-il, returned to South Korea after completing the delivery.
Andrew Kim Do-hyung, aid manager for the group, told ucanews.com that the program was implemented in cooperation with the (North) Korean Roman Catholic Association.
Kim told ucanews.com that infants and the elderly were the major beneficiaries of the relief project.
North Korea did not want to provide details of the flood-hit area so the team chose its distribution area based on satellite weather photos from the Korea Metereological Administration, Kim said.
However, North Korea’s eastern region also suffered “major” flood damage, the aid team learned during their visit.
Kim said he hoped that the small program would act as a catalyst for reconciliation between the two Koreas after a South Korean warship was allegedly sunken by a North Korean torpedo in May.
Corea Peace 3000, which includes Catholics, Protestant pastors, Buddhist monks and lawyers among its members, previously established a soy-milk factory near theChangchung Church in Pyongyang in 2006.
http://www.ucanews.com/2010/10/20/catholic-group-delivers-aid-to-north-korea/
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