Autumn Visit

North Korea Autumn Visit

(October 16^th – November 1^st, 2012)

The following is a short report on the most recent visit by the Eugene Bell Foundation to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).

This autumn’s trip took place from October 16^th – November 1^st. Our delegation was invited by the North Korean Ministry of Public Health. It included Dr. Stephen Linton; his wife, Cecilia Lee Linton; Dr. Justin Seung, medical director and tuberculosis specialist; Fr. Gerard Hammond M.M., Eugene Bell Foundation board member; Fr. Michael Roncin MEP, Fr. Christopher Berard(Lyons Archdiocese) and Mrs. Leslie Horne, Seoul Foreign School teacher.

We picked up our visas at the DPRK Consulate in Beijing

on October 15^th and took the Air Koryo flight to Pyongyang the next day. We were met by a 7 member team composed of officials from the Ministry of Public Health, tuberculosis specialists and technicians. The North Korean team traveled with us during the entire sixteen day visit. As usual, our delegation stayed at the Kobangsan Guest House, a facility located about 20 kilometers northeast of Pyongyang operated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On our first day we visited EugeneBell’s warehouse at the Central Medical Depot in Pyongyang. This guarded facility is the main distribution point for medications donated to the Ministry of Public Health. We arranged for transport of medications and supplies to six of the eight multi-drug tuberculosis treatment facilities supported by EugeneBell. Because arranging separate shipment to distant facilities is difficult, we loaded medications and supplies for the two most distant facilities on our own trucks.

EugeneBell has been assigned to North Korea’s two northwestern provinces (North and South Pyongan) where approximately 1/3^rd of the population lives. We have approximately 800 multi-drug resistant tuberculosis patients under treatment this autumn. EugeneBell’s program is the only one available in North Korea and reaches only about 5% of the multi-drug resistant tuberculosis patients in the North Korea.

We left for the Sunchon MDR Tuberculosis Treatment Center, North Pyongan Province at 4 am the next morning (October 17^th) and did not get back to the Guesthouse until after 10 pm that night. Travel to and from another T.B centers took even longer due to rainy weather and bad road conditions.

At each center we visit the procedure is the same. Our team collects sputum samples and takes X-rays of all registered patients. Sputum samples from prospective patients are tested using the three GeneXperts machines we bring with us. (The Taejon Diocese, Maryknoll and Seoul Foreign School each donated one of these high-tech machines. Within two hours GeneXperts are able to determine whether someone has tuberculosis, and whether their tuberculosis is resistant to the primary drug for treating tuberculosis.) New patients are selected according to the results of these tests. While the other members of our delegation help with collecting sputum, weighing patients, copying medical documents, and taking pictures to confirm patient identities, our medical director consults with the local North Korean physicians to determine which patients have completed treatment. We hold a ‘graduation ceremony’ for all patients who are being discharged. One of our final tasks is to distribute another six-month supply of medication to all old and new patients.

Completing all of these tasks takes at least nine hours and makes for a very long day as we process approximately 100 patients at each center. Because tuberculosis is an airborne disease, all of our work with patients must be done outside as it would be dangerous to be in close contact with highly-infectious patient’s in-doors. This is the primary reason our visits take place in spring and autumn. This visit we only had two rainy days and the weather did not turn cold until our last day, for which we were grateful.

Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is a difficult disease to treat, particularly in patients who have been ill for as long as most North Korean sufferers. Our cure-rate has risen from about 50% to 60% and we expect results will continue to improve as the program becomes more established. As a consequence, these visits have both happy and sad moments. There are many deaths and some patients do not respond to the medications we bring, despite our best efforts. Someday we hope to have hospices for those who fail treatment but as yet we can do little for them. On the other hand, we are encouraged when we see cured patients discharged to return to their families in good health.

Ambassador Edward Pietrzyk invited me to celebrate Mass at the Polish Embassy on Sunday October 28^th. He sent invitations to other members of the 24 diplomatic missions and members of the international community in Pyongyang. There have been six Masses offered at the Polish Embassy since 2010. Attendance has ranged from 48-62 Catholics and Protestants, including children. After each Mass the Ambassador invites everyone to a luncheon reception. This time the new ambassador for Sweden attended the Mass. Though he is not a Catholic, he invited our delegation to visit his Embassy. His wife is a fervent Catholic.

On The Feast Day of All Saints we said our goodbyes to our North Korean Ministry of Public Health team members. We also thanked the employees at the government guesthouse who go out of their way to make our visits as comfortable as possible by providing meals for us no matter how late we return from our visits to treatment centers.

Although we have just returned, we are already making preparations for our next visit scheduled for April 2013. Eugene Bell’s multi-drug resistant program may expand to North Korea’s east coast next year.

Catholics are an important source of support for the Eugene Bell Foundation’s work in North Korea, both for funding and for personnel. Due to North Korea’s reluctance to allow South Korean citizens to visit undeveloped areas, the Foundation depends on non-Koreans who speak Korean to staff its delegations. Persons with these qualifications who are willing to volunteer their time are not easy to find. I hope more Catholics; particularly members of religious communities in the Republic of Korea, will become involved. This is a unique opportunity to minister to people who suffer from a deadly disease in desperate need of help.

Dealing with Addictive Behavior

Because of excessive drinking, smoking, and the internet, many of our Korean youths are finding it difficult to adapt to society, and are knocking on the doors of counseling services. The ever present smart phone has also created problems for them. The View from the Ark columnist of the Catholic Times, who has been working in mass media for over 30 years, points out that drinking and  smoking increased two-fold over what it was two years ago, and in Seoul, internet addiction is the primary reason for seeking the help of counseling services.

The advances that Korea has made in internet and smart phone accessibility has facilitated the addiction. The greatest number of those using the internet are the youth; consequently, this age group has the most problems. One out of three find it more enjoyable to relate to the internet than with others. Twenty to thirty percent of them find the internet interfering with their work; their studies  and relationship not only suffer but there is the failure to distinguish the real from virtual reality. At present, video games are shut down at midnight, and plans are being worked out to have a cooling-off period of 10 minutes after two hours of games--a strategy not accepted by all.

The smart phone is now more of a problem than the internet. Within two years of its introduction, there were over 20 million users. And like the internet addiction, the young are the ones who have the greatest problem with this addiction.

Those who have studied the issue of addiction say depression is a big reason for these addictive behaviors. Not that the addiction brings about depression but because of depression there is a tendency to become attracted to one or more addictive activities. It has been suggested that sports would be a good activity to overcome the addictive activities and relieve the stress most of the young experience in making it in our competitive society, but their studies do not allow for much leisure time. And family and friends are not  sufficiently involved in the life of the young to help them overcome their addictions.

The columnist says the government, schools, churches, and social organizations are trying to help but emphasizes that once addiction takes hold, it's very difficult to overcome. Doing what is necessary before the addiction takes hold would be the approach with the best chance of success. If help is directed to helping our young deal with their stresses and worries they routinely encounter, there will be less need to keep them away from addictive activities.

In this Year of Faith, it's a good time, says the columnist, to see not so much our own level of faith but also to be more concerned about our families and the young people around us. If we can help our young people accept a proper value system and life-nurturing habits, this approach will go a long way to solving the problem of addiction. 

Facing Problems Maturely

None of us goes through life without irritations and scars. St. Hildegard of Bingen, recently raised to the status of doctor of the Church, is quoted as saying, "To become a person is to have our irritant turned into a pearl." The scars that have been inflicted, when accepted and healed, can make us more mature, more understanding and more peaceful, a person who has turned adversity into an opportunity to grow. Another example, where the crooked is made straight; for a Christian, it's all the work of grace.

A Catholic Times columnist writes that after finishing one of her motivational lectures a father of a third year high school girl asked if she would be able to talk with his daughter, who was depressed and found no meaning in life.  It was impossible to plan an interview but she gave the father her e-mail and telephone number and said that if the daughter was interested, she could contact her.

Shortly after, she did receive a message from the daughter, and since then they have talked on the telephone a number of times. Last year, she was accepted at a college, and communication between them stopped, until recently when she called, wanting to know, "What do I have to do to find confidence?"  Since the columnist prefers having persons with problems find the answers to their own questions, she ask her what was happening in her life. 

She told the columnist that one day, one of her teachers, after a lecture, asked the students to give a three-minute report on what they had just heard. When it was her turn to give the report, her face turned red, her breathing became constricted, and she was unable to answer.  After that, whenever she was asked a question or was asked for comments, she would turn red and be confused.

The columnist now knew it was the classroom that was the problem and told her repeatedly that it was all right. It's the wounded child in us that is responding, she told the girl. When happy and all goes well, the wounded child hides. When we are not well or facing some difficulty, the child appears and troubles us.

Many do not want to face this child and hesitate to probe into the possible causes of the pain they are  feeling. When we have a physical wound, we bandage it to keep it from becoming infected, and the same tends to be true with psychic wounds.   We should face head on what is bothering us; it is a necessary part of the treatment.Most of the irritants and wounds we receive, whether self-inflicted or from others, we are able to handle and are often made  stronger because of them. What is important is that we face them head on, and if necessary with help from others but always, as people of faith, with the knowledge that we are not alone in the effort.