Aid group to send milk to North Korean kids

Seoul: A South Korean church group, Corea Peace 3000, has launched a month-long campaign to raise money to buy soymilk to distribute to undernourished children in North Korea.

The campaign, which started on July 15, aims to raise 100 million won (some US$84,000) to provide 5,000 children with 200-milliliters of soybean milk every day for one year.

“When our members visited Pyongyang last May, our North Korean counterparts told us that the children’s health has deteriorated because of the serious difficulty of obtaining food,” Corea 3000 coordinator Kim Do-hyung said.

The campaign also aims to help ease high tensions between North and South Korea by appealing to people, especially in South Korea, to help the starving children, Kim added.

Corea Peace 3000 says that it will buy the base materials for making soymilk, including soybeans and sugar, which will be delivered to a Pyongyang factory in September.

The organization partnered with the (North) Korean Roman Catholics Association to build the plant in 2006 within the compound of Changchung Church, the only Catholic Church in North Korea.

Seoul has imposed tough cross-border restrictions since South Korea accused the North of sinking one its warships.

The Cheonan was sunk by a suspected North Korean submarine on March 26, further straining the already frayed relations between the two Koreas.

Meanwhile, the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) says it will send 76 tons of flour to the Korean Christian Federation, its North Korean counterpart.

The flour, which will be sent on Aug. 7 by ship from Incheon, will be used to make bread and noodles for children.

NCCK says it wants to show its commitment toward working for peace and coexistence between two Koreas.

Courtesy: UCAN

Spiritual Resources