vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #163 / Social life / Reading article...

Regional companies will donate more than 50 tons of food and medical supplies to North Korea, Primorye Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko said recently.

Nazdratenko met with North Korean consul Han Yun San to announce he had enough pledges from local companies for the first shipment, which will include flour, sugar, rice, buckwheat, and medical supplies. There will be more to follow, Nazdratenko said.

North Korea has suffered severe food shortages since 1995 floods ruined much of the country’s arable land. The United Nations World Food Program has said that the country will need 1 million tons of aid to survive the next several months.

Leonid Savitsky, acting director of meat producing company Dalvemo, said his company pledged three tons of oatmeal to North Korea. “When there are people starving only 350 kilometers from our border, we have a responsibility to help them,” he said.

Despite continual International Red Cross announcements that North Korea may divert humanitarian aid to the nation’s military, Savitsky said, “I’m confident that the containers will get to the Korean people.”

“I’ve read in the papers that there were cases where humanitarian aid was kept to feed the army, but there’s no definite proof of that,” he said.

Primorye officials will try to monitor the donation, but face resistance from the North Korean government. “It’s a question that bothers us,” said Olga Proskuryakova, head of the External Trade Division in the krai government. “We’re going to try to keep track of the shipment, but I don’t think the Korean government will let us,” she said.

Nazdratenko told the North Korean consul that the recipients must decide how to distribute the food, but Primorye companies hoped it would “go to the people who need it most.” He called North Korea and Primorye “brothers with an excellent relationship.”

The consul accepted the offer, but did not specify who would receive the shipment. “Thank you very much for your help,” he said. “We are experiencing hardship right now. But with the wise leadership of comrade Kim [Jong-Il, leader of North Korea], the Korean people will eventually free themselves from hardship,” Han said.

Nazdratenko, who shares a Feb. 16 birthday with Kim Jong-Il, quickly interrupted him. “Why are you always going on about your leader?” he asked curtly. “This is about ordinary people.”