Imagine that, for every US$10 donated, you can feed a child for a month. For a month a child gets to eat bread and not go hungry. That’s how much mileage your dollar goes.
Rev George Rhee started Love North Korea Children (LNKC) after he visited the country and saw a great number of malnourished children roaming the streets. He decided to help, and at first wanted to start an orphanage.
He felt that every child needed a parent, that is, someone to assure them that in the cruelty and deprivation they face, they can always find a love that is unconditional and self-sacrificial.
But Rev Rhee was told that North Korea did not allow him to start an orphanage. Why? Because (as Rev Rhee recalled) “they said there are no orphans in North Korea, that all of them are Kim Jong II’s children”.
So, Rev Rhee did the next best thing, he decided to set up bakeries to offer bread to the children. ”Citing a Bible verse about loving your enemies, (Rev Rhee) said he hopes to do more to help those in need, but lamented that donations are hard to come by these days.”
He said: “To start another bakery, he will need to raise US$20,900 (S$27,500) to buy equipment and materials and another US$3,000 a month to keep the operations going. Local workers do not get any salary, they get one or two bags of flour instead.”
You have to look at the stats to get an idea of how dire the situation is. “The UN warned in May that 40 per cent of North Korea’s 25 million population are facing a “deep hunger crisis” after the worst harvest in 10 years.”” That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
“Nearly half of the population suffer from undernourishment, and food rations have been cut to 300g a person a day.”
Needless to say, North Korea has a big security issue and it is not so much about the nuclear buildups, which has diverted all resources away from feeding its own people. The greatest security issue is however the insecurity complex of her leadership, which not only runs the country based exclusively on fear, but her leaders themselves live in fear of being overthrown. This fear is a vicious cycle that utterly impoverished the country, while the leadership live in the lap of luxury and the throes of paranoia.
If you think only India has an oppressive caste system, well, guess again. North Korea has her very own. And they come in three broad classes: loyal, wavering and hostile.
The loyal owns all of North Korea. They form about 10 per cent of the total population. They are considered politically committed to the regime. They have every interest in continuing it. They live in the capital (Pyongyang) and receive the best housing, schooling and standard of living in general. Their children are indeed blessed by the regime.
The wavering are considered the middle class. They make up about half of North Korea population. They have no chance of going to college or have a professional job. If they are lucky, they get to sign on with the military. They are sandwiched between the loyal and the hostile. But their fate cannot even be compared to the hostile.
The hostile are the Japanese collaborators, the Christians, and the skeptics. They are a broad category very much added on at the dictator’s whim and fancy. They comprise about 40 per cent of the population.
”These “undesirables” have no social mobility and no hope of advancement. Their lives revolve around a collective farm or factory - an assignment that, for the last few decades, has meant fending for themselves.” (Pg 121 of “The Great Successor” by author Anna Fifield”).
Anna wrote that the system is really a wild card and is based on continually buttering the good side of the dictator. “Someone born with bad songbun has no hope of moving up the social hierarchy. The upper levels, however, can plummet all the way to the bottom if they put a foot wrong.”
So in a state like North Korea, where extreme insecurity and paranoia rule, one day you are royal, living the high life, and the next, you find yourself in one of the political prison camps stripped of your humanity, living like rats.
In fact, if you look at the fate of the hostile or undesirables, the majority of the Newton laws of motion does not even apply to them.
You have heard about every object moving in a straight line unless acted upon by a force. But with a totally eviscerated population, you can’t even lift a finger to feed yourself, what’s more to stand up to act as an opposing force against the regime.
How about the second law? That is, the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force exerted and inversely proportional to the object's mass.
Well, if you agree with the first failed law above, this is a corollary. The regime may be the object of quiet scorn, but its advancement (or acceleration) and weight (mass) of power are very much secured, anchored. In the current state, no one has the courage, strength and vision to apply net force on it to even hope for better days. It is a regime basically ruled by fear and nothing else.
And the last law is often quoted, that is, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Maybe, there is some redeeming grace in this law. Maybe, this law is one of hope where cruelty meets love, destitution meets restoration, pain meets healing and brokenness meets joy. And people like Rev Rhee is but one of them shining city on the hill that bridges the opposing forces. Alas, his tireless devotion of love is the flashing lighthouse of humanity in the sea of sheer absurdity.
He said: “North Korean people have very pure hearts. They have the same face as South Koreans, but their skin is darker because they work under the sun, and their hands are very rough. My heart is moved by how hard they work, even though they live a difficult life.”
Rev Rhee opened his first bakery in 2006 in north-eastern port city of Rason. In 2014, he opened his sixth bakery and this is followed by “the launch of bakeries in Pyongyang in 2008, Hyangsan in 2010, Sariwon in 2012 and Nampo in 2012.”
Medical researcher Jana Kovar from Czech Republic, who helped to raise funds for LNKC, observed this: “the bakeries can feed an impressive number of children when operating at full capacity.”
She added: “It was extremely satisfying to see children getting their daily supply of bread.”
I can imagine that. Everyone of them rushing to sink their teeth into the steaming hot bread. It was a moment of gratitude, of simple pleasures, of not going hungry, at least for that day.
The stark reality is that they will never fully understand why they are not given enough when they are hungry. They will never fully understand why their parents were not able to feed them, school them, and provide a decent life for them.
But at least, they will come to know, even for that fleeting moment, that there are people who care enough to offer free bread to them. They care enough to love even if it risks their own life demonstrating it.
That is Newton’s third law in action, that is, every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, or for every hunger, there is always bread offered, and for every life lost, there is always a life offered to stand in the gap.
Ps: When Jesus said suffer not the little ones to come to me for theirs is the Kingdom of God, He is reminding us adults and leaders alike about humility, and not world peace, about healing a broken soul, not signing treaties, and about nurturing those under our care, protecting them with our life, and not pursuing those that can enrich us and secure our positions of power and wealth.
If we as leaders can’t even feed our own, especially those vulnerable and innocent ones, then whatever we do on the world stage is in vain. They may win the accolades of men, get applause from this world, but in the eyes of those dying, and in the eyes of those who have to watch them die, it is a tragic failure of leadership at its very core.
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