In September 1997, the first American civilian aircraft in nearly half a century landed in North Korea. It was chartered by the non-profit AmeriCares, and it brought with it 59,000 pounds of nutritional supplements, antibiotics, vitamins, gastro-intestinal medicine, antidiarrheals and infant formula. For the past eight years, the Connecticut-based organization has sent two shipments of medical supplies to North Korean hospitals and orphanages each year.

Continue reading "North Korea Aid: Profile of Amy Daniels" »

Posted by Tomio Geron at 10:26 PM | Permalink

Lee Hee Sook (middle row, far left) with her family in North Korea in 1941.

Lee Hee Sook, 74, was born in Cheongjin, North Korea in 1931. A member of one of the 11 million Korean families divided on either side of the 38th parallel after World War II, she is also among the few who have been able to travel back across that line to see her relatives again.

Continue reading "Orphaned Daughter of North Korea Goes Home, Leaves Again" »

Posted by Tomio Geron at 10:49 AM | Permalink

Jason LaBouyer has been to North Korea twice. In July 2004 and again in August this year, the 23-year-old from California’s Yuba City crossed over the 38th parallel—something most Americans have not been able to do since George W. Bush invented an Axis of Evil and made the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea a charter member. Both trips were arranged by the North Korean government.

“I travel to the DPRK not as a tourist," he told me shortly after returning from his latest visit, "but as a guest of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries."

Continue reading "The American Friend" »

Posted by Tomio Geron at 06:55 PM | Permalink