배 고픈 아이는 정치를 모릅니다

배 고픈 아이는 정치를 모릅니다

A hungry child knows no politics

 

 

남북관계, 북미관계 조금 꼬여 있고, 한국내 수꼴, 보수의 한반도 평화 방해 공작이

 

극에 달하고 있습니다.

 

 

모두가 포기하고 절망할때 희망을 만드는 것이

 

우리의 임무입니다.

 

사람부터 먼저 살리는 한반도 평화 프로세스를 기원합니다.

 

옛말에 보리 고개.

 

우리 조상들의 보릿고개.

 

우리 세대에서 사라진 그 보릿고개.

 

배 고픈 사람에게 밥 한술 함께 할 수 있는 것 만큼

 

더 큰 행복 어디 있겠습니까?

 

우리 조상들은 굿모닝 대신

 

"진지 드셨습니까?"

 

"밥 묻나?"

 

"밥 묵고 가래이"

 

지난 남북정상회담때 김정은 지도자도

 

문재인 대통령께 밥 한끼 대접 꼭 하고 싶다며

 

그 다음 정상회담을 했습니다.

 

그것이 우리의 전통이고 문화입니다.

 

북한의 어린이들, 산모들, 배 고픈 사람들과 함께

 

미래를 꿈꾸어 봅시다.

 

북한의 지도자들도 그렇게 우리의 뜻을 받아 주길 빕니다.

 

배고픈 사람이 밥 한 술 먹는 것 보면서

 

눈물 흘려 본적 있습니까?

 

그 눈물이 진실이며 희망입니다.

 

촛불입니다.

 

--시몬천 드림

Simone Chun

 

 

A hungry child knows no politics 배 고픈 아이는 정치를 모릅니다

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

 

 

 

 

 

Dear friend--an update and appeal for immediate food aid to North Korea’s most disenfranchised population now or as soon as is feasible. When I visited Democratic members of Congress in 2018 as part of Korea Peace Network’s advocacy days, humanitarian aid to North Korea was one issue that received bipartisan support. Even the biggest critics of President Trump supported humanitarian aid. Moreover, President Trump himself made clear his support for humanitarian aid. It is wrong to allow population in North Korea to starve or die of preventable disease. Please help!

 

•140,000 children suffering from the severest malnutrition

 

•1 million pregnant women, nursing mothers and children

 

•11 million people who suffer from chronic food insecurity and malnutrition

        

 

I. The unending Korean War that divided Korea is the historical and structural cause of North Korea’s permanent food insecurity 한국 전쟁과 분단이 북한 기아의 역사적, 구조적 근본 원인이다.

1.North Korea’s ratio of population to arable land is one of the world’s most unfavorable.

 

2.“Among the many causes of food insecurity in the DPRK, the most glaring and virtually never reported, occurred in 1945 when the US with USSR acquiescence divided the peninsula at the 38th parallel setting in motion the horrendous deluge of events. The overlooked fact is that historically, 80% of food production in Korea was done in the southern regions, below the 38th parallel where the majority of the country's arable land has always existed.” (via Prof. Ramsay Liem)

 

II. 11 reasons why sanctions on North Korea DIRECTLY cause the present food crisis in North Korea 대북 경제제제가 북한 기아 초래 11가지 이유

1.Sanctions have taken a significant humanitarian toll on the North Korean people, with US policies in particular restricting the work of NGOs, international humanitarian agencies, and aid groups that provide a lifeline for some 13 million vulnerable North Koreans.

 

2.Sanctions put 60,000 children at risk of starvation due to the interruption of aid. According to a 2018 UNICEF report, 200,000 North Korean children already suffer from acute malnutrition.

 

3."The US has repeatedly blocked South Korean aid because it regards even humanitarian aid as leverage it can exploit to force North Korea to denuclearize…”

 

4.Sanctions raise prices on staple goods, which adversely affects the 41% of the North Korean population that is undernourished--a subsection of the 70% who are vulnerable to food insecurity.

 

5.Sanctions restrict on import of items necessary for agro-production, fuel, fertilizers, machinery and spare parts for equipment.

 

6.Sanctions cause the shortages of fuel, electricity and pumping equipment and limit the ability to irrigate, reducing yields and making crops susceptible to extreme weather shocks.

 

7.Sanctions diminish the level of agricultural mechanization as machinery ages, and spare and replacement parts are unavailable.

 

8.Sanctions cause short fuel supply, delay in agricultural operations because manual labor and animal substitute for mechanized operations. These delays limit possibilities for increasing the area under double cropping, while at the same time increasing post-harvest losses.

 

9.Sanctions cause deterioration of infrastructure, reduce electricity supply and wearing out of machinery and equipment results in increasing post-harvest losses.

 

10.Sanctions prevent North Korea from transacting for “importing the food through banking system”.

 

11.Sanctions punish DPRK civilian for the actions of their government in direct contravention of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

 

 

III. South Korea that has a chronic glut of surplus rice every year and has sent rice aid to foreign countries should send food aid directly to North Korea 천만 기아 상태 북한 주민들, 특히 임산부, 어린이들은 한민족의 미래 역사를 만들 주인공이다. 대한민국 정쟁 중단하고 남북한 식량 공동체 즉시 구성하라.

 

1.South Korea has not provided direct food aid to North Korea since 2010. The last time South Korea provided humanitarian aid to North Korea through an international agency was in 2015, when it gave $800,000 to a U.N. Population Fund project to evaluate North Korean public health conditions.

 

2.In response to the food crisis in North Korea, the South Korean government has recently decided to donate USD 8 million to international agencies such as WFP and UNICEF for projects in DPRK. It is welcoming news but not enough.

 

3.In 2016, South Korea shipped surplus rice to Cambodia and Myanmar. In 2017, South Korea sent 50,000 tons of rice to four famine-stricken nations in the Middle East and Africa as part of its overseas food aid program. Seoul delivered 17,000 tons of rice to Yemen, 15,000 tons to Ethiopia, 13,000 tons to Kenya and 5,000 tons to Uganda.

 

4.Seoul's rice aid represents the sixth-largest amount among the 16 signatories to the FAC. Seoul's overseas food aid program is expected to help ease its problem of excess rice, with the government reserve coming to 1.86 million tons last year.

 

5.The South Korean government should send food aid such as rice and corn directly to North Korea. It is faster and more efficient. SK is morally responsible. The South Korean government provides funds to international organizations, it takes about six months before the recipients actually receive any food. But when the South Korean government sends food, such as rice and corn, directly to North Korea, it normally takes about one or two months for the aid to arrive. July is less than two months away."(The Hankyoreh).

 

 

IV. An American Consensus (especially Conservatives): Hunger must NOT be an instrument of international diplomacy. Compiled from Korea Update 2015 -current 북한 식량 원조 미국내 초당적 지지. 특히 보수 정치인들 식량 원조 지지.

 

1.David Beasley (former Republican governor of South Carolina), Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP). "When one child suffers — it doesn’t matter what country they are in — we all pay a cost for that...The children of the DPRK have the same hopes, the same dreams, the same rights as any children around the world, and the needs are great...”

 

2.Harry Kazianis. "America could work to address an area of dire need that may eventually lead to massive instability and even regime collapse in North Korea – growing food shortages…“UN Security Council’s sanctions resolutions against North Korea are intended to prevent the North from developing nuclear weapons and missiles, not to hold the North Korean populace hostage in the push for denuclearization.”

 

3.Dorothy Stuehmke, the Senior Adviser to the U.S.-North Korea 2008-09 food aid program for the U.S. Agency for International Development, and served in the Office of Korean Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 2006 to 2008: "The food aid program also offered an incredible opportunity to engage with regular North Korean citizens. People who spoke Korean were permitted in North Korea to monitor and administer the program, something not allowed under any previous food aid program...As a Korean speaker myself, I experienced how knowing the language brought extra depth and cultural insight to the encounters with non-elite North Koreans outside Pyongyang. When I drove through those closed societies far from the capital, the visits to homes, schools, orphanages and public distribution centers gave these North Koreans an unforgettable experience: contact with foreigners and Americans....It gave them a window on the outside world and perhaps a different perspective of the U.S. Through my interaction with them, I was able to confirm how much they appreciated our help and that they clearly knew the food aid was coming from the United States."

 

4.Victor Cha, Former president George W. Bush's top advisor on North Korea: "All these [food] bags to into the country with the American flag on it and in Korean it says, Gift from the American people. so that is not a bad thing for us in North Korea..."

 

5.Stephan Haggard, Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington:"...disturbing is the utilitarian calculus implied in such arguments: that it is worth imposing pain--even death--on innocent North Koreans in the uncertain hope that the regime will collapse. Even more cynical is the belief that this squeeze on civilians will yield some short-term and probably ephemeral political gain. Explain that logic to those facing the shortages."

 

6.Scott Snyder, Director of The Asia Foundation's Center for U.S. Korea Policy: "However, if North Korea's implicit admission to recent assessment missions of the role of the market as part of the food equation can be used as an opening to address some of the systemic problems within the North Korean system, it is worthwhile to pursue a more active discussion of U.S. food aid to North Korea."

 

7.Jimmy Carter: "One of the most important human rights is to have food to eat."

 

8.Franklin Graham, American Christian evangelist: "It would be tragic if the United States withholds food and uses food as a weapon..”

 

9.Henry Kissinger: "I would be willing to give them food aid. I know the argument is that why should we reward them for having an unmanageable government? But the victims are the people of North Korea."

 

Unification, How Beautiful. Kids in South Korea at a civil educational forum organized by the Ministry of Unification

 

      

 

 

Das dritte Land - Art Garden, Berlin   

In the heart of the once divided city of Berlin we will create a poetic landscape that brings the still divided Korea together by means of plants and flowers. Help us start a dialogue!

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=67&v=NuJ31SgM1XA

 

 

80 Million Korean People Must Not Be Reduced to a DC Bargaining Chip https://truthout.org/articles/80-million-korean-people-must-not-be-reduced-to-a-dc-bargaining-chip/

… via @truthout #촘스키 인터뷰 포함, 8천만 한민족이 한반도 평화프로세스 주체, 저의 미국 진보 언론 기고. 많은 관심과 사랑 부탁해요^^

 

https://twitter.com/SimoneChun/status/1127255588172230657

 

 

 

 

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