In a place where grass, weeds and tree bark have become simply a means to prolong starvation, a relief worker enters a hospital to offer assistance.
When he asks the doctor in charge what types of medical supplies are most needed, there is no hesitation - only desperation - in his one-word reply.
Food.
Ellsworth Culver, vice president of Mercy Corps International, has been doing relief work for 50 years. It's the first time a doctor has ever asked him for food over medical supplies.
"The Korean man accompanying him just started to cry," says Shannon Horvath, spokeswoman for the Portland-based relief organization. "That's how bad it is over there."
North Korean famine victims don't make front-page headlines. The communist nation's self-sufficiency policies and lack of diplomatic relations have traditionally excluded outsiders, including media. But leaders in this nation of 23 million have realized that without help, disaster looms as more than 20 percent of the population is near starvation, according to international officials.
Slowly, they have allowed foreign relief workers - and the donations they bring - inside.
Representatives from LDS Church "recently participated in an international assessment of agricultural needs in the flood-damaged areas" of North Korea, according to a statement released this week by the church. Working in conjunction with Mercy Corps International and other humanitarian organizations, the church sent Elders David E. Sorensen and Rex D. Pinegar of the church's Asia North Area Presidency, along with agricultural specialists Brent Chugg and Garry Flake to tour the stricken areas.
Flooding during the past year has damaged harvests that were already meager, pushing the country ever-closer to mass starvation. Systematic problems with antiquated farming techniques and the lack of private farm ownership have exacerbated the problem.
Chugg presented and helped plant 500 apple trees donated by the church, while Flake provided technical assistance in helping to prevent soil erosion, church officials said.
Elder Sorensen said he and Elder Pinegar were asked by the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to "determine the nature of further assistance in the northern provinces of the country where food is in short supply, rationing has been instituted and there is a potential for famine."
The church has contributed some $3 million in humanitarian aid to North Korea since 1995, including cash to purchase food and medical supplies, 2,600 tons of flour, powdered milk, cooking oil, blankets and first-aid supplies.
Horvath said the church is now working with Mercy Corps on sending fertilizer to the region. "They're already working with one specific co-op farm to look at rehabilitation activities. We're looking at starting on small farms, introducing them to new crop varieties, and spinning off the results so the nation can feed itself again," she said.
"LDS Charities is really interested in this (model) farm project, and helping to send fertilizer that will increase the crop tremendously. The Koreans don't even have the means to produce fertilizer any more. They need sprayers and fertilizer spray. Two members of LDS Charities have just received permission to accompany us and watch the fertilizing project taking place," Horvath said.
At least one other Utah religious group is participating in the relief effort. Kyung Taecha, executive director of the Korean Council of Churches in Utah, said his group of 10 congregations sent donations from members last summer when early indications of food shortages were surfacing.
The group will gather again this year to celebrate Korean Independence Day Aug. 15-17, at the Utah Oriental Mission Church, 1240 E. 5600 South. "We'll meet to pray about it, and that's when people give donations," Taecha said. "Then we send the money there." The celebration, which commemorates Korea's liberation from Japan, will include 100-200 church members.
Nationally, the United Methodist Church has called for members to donate money to the United Methodist Committee on Relief and to Church World Service.
The Rev. S. Michael Hahm, an executive with the church's Board of Global Ministries, said Korean United Methodist Churches are donating the bulk of relief for the effort. Some $200,000 has been collected, along with thousands of dollars worth of medical supplies and equipment and other relief items.
Most churches that donate want the assurance that the assistance will go directly to the people, rather than the military, he said. "I've made two trips personally, and we are able to tell people that the assistance is making it to those in need," the Rev. Hahm said.
While fund-raising efforts continue, United Nations relief workers reported this week that 800,000 North Korean children under five - 37 percent of all children in that age group - are malnourished. Many "have been reduced to pitiful, skeletal figures too weak even to eat the emergency food rations that are being sent by the West," according to a report by Reuters News Service.
The Rome-based World Food Program released film footage shot last week during visits to hospitals and nurseries showing children with protruding ribs, bloated stomachs, bowed legs and swollen joints - all characteristic of starvation. They provide some of the first visual images made available of the situation.
A hospital official in Kusong City, southeast of the capital city of Pyongyang, was quoted by Reuters as saying his facility had turned away malnourished children because there wasn't enough food to feed them.
Donations are being accepted by a number of organizations to help fund the relief effort. They include:
*Mercy Corps International, P.O. Box 9, Portland, OR 97207, 1-800-766-4040 (make checks to Mercy Corps International North Korea Relief Fund)
*United Methodist Committee on Relief, call 1-800-814-8765
*International Red Cross North Korea Relief Fund, call 323-7000.