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June 30, 2002
Return to my birthplace after 62 years
Kyung Joo is a short, lively girl who comes to our house a couple
of times a month to talk with Sue about her life and faith. She
escaped across North Korea’s Yalu River into China and after
some bad experiences there she was helped to come to South Korea
via a third country. The news these days holds up the plight of
these who are not recognized as political refugees by China. Kyung
Joo was assisted by a government resettlement grant and she has
just finished study and exam to become a beautician in Seoul.
Always I have wondered what conditions are like in the North
where I was born and from which so many, like Kyung Joo, are running.
From May 7 to 14, I learned a little about North Korean conditions
as I visited caregiving sites as a donor to the Eugene Bell Foundation
project to help patients with tuberculosis. Since it was 62 years
after I had left and I have a good "forgetory," there
was not much that I recognized. What I saw was the countryside
as we drove to Sinuiju on the northwest border with China, some
TB rest homes and hospitals, some sights in Pyengyang and the
guest house for foreigners 20 minutes from downtown next to the
Taedong River.
What were my impressions of North Korea? I had heard my wife
and other visitors tell of the hunger problem, the fact that the
people do not readily talk to foreigners, and the poor condition
of buildings and factories, but on my visit one could get a surface
impression that things were better than I had imagined. Tractors
were doing most of the work in the fields that we saw. Although
it was the second week in May, many of the fields were not planted
yet, and only a small part of the rural population seemed to be
working in the fields. The exception to this was in certain sections
where children and adults from offices and schools had been sent
out to transplant rice or do another urgent farm task.
The private vegetable plots nearer homes were better tended than
communal fields for growing corn or rice. This is understandable,
since the farmers will eat or sell the produce while grain and
cows belong to the commune. Goats and a few oxen were in evidence
but only rarely did we see dogs, some being carried to or from
the markets. When we came south from Sinuiju on Saturday many
people were walking out from their apartments on the edge of the
city to the next town to go to a farmers’ market since it
was market day. In general, people outside were usually walking,
wearing drab colors and carrying a backpack or bundle, moving
ahead to reach their destination. Only a very few were talking
together or loitering.
When we spoke a greeting to someone they might give a sentence
greeting back, but neither our guides or the people at large wanted
any extended conversations outside of our contacts with those
in the tuberculosis program. Driving through small cities and
country areas, we saw many newer style and vintage apartments
and houses as well as larger buildings belonging to commune or
other government offices. Many soldiers traveling in trucks were
going to serve as a general labor force. Everywhere there were
slogans on buildings, billboards and memorial towers praising
Kim Il Sung, Kim Jung Il and North Korea’s ideology of self-reliance.
We could only guess at living conditions. Many of the children
seemed to be small for their age. For example, at one remote rest
home I asked a passing boy who looked about 9 years old how old
he was and he said that he was 12. At the rest homes and hospitals
the buildings were in bad condition with poor construction and
little repair. The patients were usually four to a room with no
sheets and dirty blankets. But whereas without Western medicine
in prior years TB had been fatal, now the recovery rate is 85
percent for those who have never been treated and 75 percent for
those previously treated. Because of the fear of contagion, most
of the facilities we visited were far out of town but they had
land on which they could grow vegetables and we checked on tractors
donated to help with that.
The truck-mounted mobile clinics had X-ray machines and a generator
and could screen as many as 1,000 persons a day using smaller
X-ray pictures. Generators had been provided with the X-ray equipment
in rest homes and hospitals, but when these broke down and the
X-ray machines were connected to the power grid, the fluctuating
and uncertain electric power (and heavy use) caused several X-ray
units to break down. Although TB medications are only effective
to treat tuberculosis, the wisdom of on-site inspections at every
site was verified by the challenges of equipment breakdown and
possible distribution problems seen on this trip.
There were more doctors than nurses at these medical facilities
and the doctors visited the outpatients to check on their medications
and condition. There did not seem to be any sign that discipline
and government functions were breaking down. Despite poor facilities,
remote locations, small and possibly irregular distribution of
pay and rice rations, the medical personnel seemed to be at their
posts and making do with what they had. Thanks to the Bell Foundation
and some World Health Organization help to larger hospitals, there
is now almost enough medication coming into the North at the supported
sites to provide for the known patients.
Arirang Festival
The tremendous show with a reputed 100,000 performers at the
Arirang Festival was unforgettable.
It was in the large stadium with scenery on a rising stage, dancers,
bands, acrobats, and moving pictures all integrated into a scenario
recounting North Korea’s history and indirectly praising
the senior Kim and son. Over 30,000 students had been mobilized
and trained to perfection to hold up colored cards making a mosaic
of pictures or writing or providing a tremendous movie screen.
The scene would change with a ripple effect from one side to the
other requiring tremendous discipline for precise movement and
memorizing of card changes by the students. No other country on
earth would try to produce such a spectacle. But why could not
all the efforts and organization be better put to feed the North’s
people? It reminds one of the later Roman emperors providing "bread
and circuses" to keep the masses quiet (only without the
bread).
It was thought-provoking and inspiring to attend worship at the
Bong Soo Church, where the Mothers’ Day message was mainly
explaining the Bible’s story of Ruth without a lot of application
for today or any political content. The choir and special ensemble
sang especially well, and I was given copies of the North Korean
Bible and hymnbook. There were about 180 persons in attendance
and a visiting group of Protestant overseas Korean leaders from
Germany. Pyengyang, because of its many churches, used to be called
the Jerusalem of Asia. When God opens the door for the gospel
in North Korea, worship may again be given to the truly divine
Father and Son instead of being given to Kim Il Sung, proclaimed
to be with the people eternally, and to Kim Jung Il, proclaimed
the "Sun of the 21st Century" by many signs there.
The help in the form of food, medicine and visits of those from
outside this closed country will show the people there that others
care about them. With the gradual opening to the world the natural
interest in spiritual things may express itself in a great in-gathering
to Christ, but lots of care needs to be given about how Christians
will show God’s love to this people who for 57 years have
had such a different history and experience.
We are well and our second son, Ross, is getting married August
3 in Honolulu.
Yours serving Christ in Korea,
Art and Sue
The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 181
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