Japanese NGO Delivers Aid Inside North Korea
OK, I’m amazed:
The operation to distribute emergency supplies in Hamgyong-bukto, North Korea was a success. Through one of our clandestine local networks, we were able to provide extremely needy people with a total of one ton of rice, as well as clothing and antibiotics. The value of all items supplied equaled 300,000 yen (about US$2,500). The extra supplies were financed by recent donations. Late November of last year, five members of LFNKR’s local group JYO entered Hoeryong-si, North Korea from China, carrying several boxes filled with winter clothing, antibiotics and penicillin.
To avoid indefinite delays at customs, bribes had to be paid to the North Korean customs personnel. Beyond the customs gate, many hungry day workers waited, hoping to earn money by carrying boxes. The JYO members had to keep a firm grip on their supplies so they wouldn’t be snatched away. The rescue team stayed in Hoeryong-si 10 days completing the mission.
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I think I already linked to the site in another comment and don’t have the time to find it again, but I found where Newt Gingrich recommended as one of the primary US North Korea policy initiatives doing exactly what this group did and/or covertly supporting groups like this do what they did.
I think I could support that wholeheartedly.
I’ve already been saying we should flood NK with electronic devices that are durable and easy to conceal that will act as 21st century printing presses for the distribution of as much information about the outside world as possible –
-and buy that I mean things like Hollywood movies, sporting events, fashion shows, and so on.
I haven’t mentioned this in awhile, so I’ll repeat it in some detail:
on watching a long PBS documentary about the Cold War and its end, I was fascinating by the story of one business man.
He said he had always been a firm believer that communism was the correct moral/ethical system. He was not some rich businessman tied to the government. He was a small businessman who believed in the system.
Then he talked about going to England as things loosened up in the 1980s. He talked about sharing videos he shot with his family.
PBS recreated (kind of) the situation by showing the same video with him sitting on a couch.
The video was beyond boring.
It was just him walking through a supermarket. Row after row of vegtables, meat, one hundred different types of potato chips, I mean boring boring.
He said his mother started to cry watching it and couldn’t stop crying —- because she understood the depths of the lie she had been fed all her life and how that lie had negatively affected her life.
That was very powerful to me.
So, when I talk about flooding NK with information about the outside world, and the means to copy and distribute that info, I mean simple stuff. I think that stuff will have a deeper impact than any kind of “propaganda” we might cook up.
And I do believe it would lead to the collapse of the regime and also pave the way for a less than catastrophic connection between post-collapse Korean society and outsiders (particularly the US government) in the immediate after-math of collapse.
i love this thread.
I am currently residing in China. Does anyone have any contact information for aid agencies in China that assist North Koreans. Since this website is blocked please email me at TianjinWaiGuoRen@yahoo.com
Anon, I hope that you will understand, given the implications of Chinese authorities discovering the location of any such networks, that my friends in the underground railroad have to be exceptionally careful about whose assistance they accept. If you’re willing to assist, there will be a time and place, and I suspect that it will come in 2008.
I find it strange that anon was able to post a message despite the website being blocked. Anyway, I ran a Yahoo profile/email search on TianjinWaiGuoRen and got no results. Now that doesn’t mean the email address is not valid. Yahoo members can hide their profiles from public searches.
In any event, anyone who clicks on the map image in my far-right sidebar can see links to worthy organizations in need of donations. If you’re still there, Anon, that’s what I would recommend, if you can afford to give a few bucks.
I know this site is blocked. That is why I asked for an email list. It is very difficult to access foreign sites. Tianjinwaiguoren@yahoo.com . I am disappointed no one contacted me. Blocked websites are only blocked to people who are incapable of thinking outside the box. The only problem is it takes about 30 minutes to load a website hahaha.