German Red Cross asked to continue in DPRK

North Korea has requested that the German Red Cross continue providing medical aid beyond ithe 2009 deadline.

The request was made when Rudolf Seiters, president of the German Red Cross, visited Pyongyang on April 22-26 and met with Kim Yong-nam, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly to discuss his group’s overrall programs to aid the communist state.

The German group has sent medical kit that includes pain-killers, antibiotics and nutritional injections, as well as medical equipment such as blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes to some 2,000 local hospitals and clinics across North Korea since April last year. About 8.8 million North Korean residents benefited from the aid, Koch said.

The German government has provided 4 million euros (US$6.2 million) worth of aid to the North every year since 1997, the spokeswoman added.

Read the full article below:
German Red Cross asked to continue helping N.K.: report
Yonhap
5/1/2008

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Germany, Health care, International Aid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Werner Koidl

The same (?) press release in German language:

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“BERLIN – Der Präsident des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes (DRK), Rudolf Seiters, appelliert an die Bundesregierung, die humanitäre Hilfe für die Menschen in Nordkorea über das Jahr 2008 hinaus fortzusetzen. Im NWZ-Interview sagte der ehemalige Bundesinnenminister über die Ernährungslage in dem kommunistischen Land, es bestehe „Grund zur Sorge“. Auch eine Verbesserung der medizinischen Versorgung in den ländlichen Regionen Nordkoreas sei „dringend erforderlich“.

Seit 1997 hat das DRK für seine Nordkorea-Hilfe aus dem Etat des Auswärtigen Amtes nach Angaben von Seiters insgesamt 4,1 Millionen Euro erhalten. Über eine Fortsetzung der Zahlungen wird derzeit verhandelt. Seiters war am vergangenen Sonntag von einer einwöchigen Nordkorea-Reise zurückgekehrt”

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Thus, the German Red Cross did not receive every year about 4 Million Euros from the German government, but since 1997 alltogether that amount to help to finance humanitarian projects of the German Red Cross in North Korea.

North Korean Economy Watch

German Red Cross asked to continue in DPRK