Defector Kim Yong Hwa has been sending bottles of rice out to sea from South Korea’s Ganghwa Island in the hope that they would be picked up by North Koreans.<\/b>
SEOUL: Kim Yong Hwa is a defector who escaped North Korea in 1988 and made his way to China. He lived there for years before he travelled to Vietnam with a view to seeking political asylum in South Korea.
It was only in 2001 that he finally arrived in South Korea and since then, has been engaged in various projects to help people from his homeland. \u00ab\u00a0I help North Koreans defect to the South and also help those who have already come here but are not able to adjust, \u00a0\u00bb he said.
He also organises campaigns to send rice to North Korea, in the hope that should a war break out on the Korean peninsula, people in the North would not turn against their neighbours. \u00ab\u00a0They know the rice is from South Korea and they will be grateful. The rice will be stronger than a gun or a bomb, \u00a0\u00bb he told Channel NewsAsia.
The rice is sent to the North in plastic bottles with labels indicating that they are sent from the South. Each bottle is filled with about a kilogramme of rice and thrown into the sea, usually near Ganghwa Island in the West Sea.
Kim is certain that the bottles will reach Ongjin county and Haeju city in South Hwanghae province, North Korea by the next day at latest.
\u00ab\u00a0I’m not from Ongjin, but I used to be with the 4th Corp of the North Korean People\u2019s Army near Haeju in Hwanghae province, \u00a0\u00bb Kim explained. \u00ab\u00a0Even in the 1970s, when there was a flood, many things, even dead pigs, were carried down the river. We used to pick them up. And so I\u2019 m 100 per cent sure that this is flowing into North Korea.\u00a0\u00bb
He usually has help from other defectors and South Korean volunteers. Some even bring US dollar bills to put in the bottles together with the rice.
\u00ab\u00a0The North Koreans are hungry and living in difficult conditions. I’m hoping I can help them even just a bit by taking part, \u00a0\u00bb said Kang Myong-hwa, one of a group of church members who were chipping in for Kim’s mission.
Park Young-hak, a North Korean defector who was also at Ganghwa packing bottles of rice, said: \u00ab\u00a0This will help the North Koreans who are starving. It doesn\u2019 t matter if a soldier finds this. I heard they were starving too. I\u2019 m hoping this will at least feed one more person.\u00a0\u00bb
Kim started his campaign about 10 years ago, but had to halt it temporarily because there were no rice donors. It was only in March last year that he managed to gather enough rice to start sending the bottles to the North again.
Since then, he has sent more than 10 tonnes of rice to North Korea, in the hope of helping change the attitude that North Koreans have towards people in the South. \u00ab\u00a0They will know that South Koreans are helping them, \u00a0\u00bb he said. \u00ab\u00a0The more North Koreans escape, the better chance there is of a regime change back home.\u00a0\u00bb
Slightly more than 30, 000 North Koreans have defected to the South. Many of them have cited hunger as being among their main reasons for leaving North Korea.
According to a United Nations report, about 70 per cent of North Korea\u2019s population relies on food assistance to get by, including 1.3 million children under the age of five.
Kim told Channel NewsAsia he will continue sending out the bottles as long as there is rice to send to the North Koreans.<\/p>\n