North Korea News Podcast by NK News - Kathi Zellweger: The life of a humanitarian worker in North Korea

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

This week, long-time North Korea aid worker Kathi Zellweger joins the podcast to discuss her more than two decades of work to help the people of the DPRK, especially children with hearing disabilities.  She talks about her last trip to the country in 2019 before North Korea shut its borders to prevent the spread of […]

Navigating the dynamics of the Korean Peninsula requires more than just information. It demands insight. Korea Risk Group offers strategic consulting that cuts through the noise. Our experts provide in-depth analysis, risk assessments and bespoke reports, all tailored to your specific needs. Whether you're exploring new opportunities or managing existing challenges, our insights can be your compass. To learn more about how we can help you make informed strategic decisions, visit careerrisk.com slash solutions today. Hello listeners and welcome to the NK News podcast. I'm your host, Jaco Zwetsluk and today this episode is recorded in the studio of the NK News office on Tuesday, the 15th of October, 2024.

And joining me here in the studio, I have Ms. Kathy Zellweger, who has worked to help the people of North Korea for over 25 years with Caritas Internacionales, a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social service organizations. And then she was based in Pyongyang for five years as North Korea country director for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the SDC. And then she's helped North Korea

with her own organization based in Hong Kong, focusing mainly on people with disabilities. Cathy, welcome on the show. Thank you so much for coming. Thanks for having me. Now, Cathy, as we all remember, North Korea shut its gates to the outside world in late January, 2020,

fearing the effects of the COVID pandemic in a country with a weak medical infrastructure. It hasn't fully reopened its gates, especially to Western diplomats and international aid organizations. Your last visit to North Korea was in December 2019, just a month before the gates were closed. That makes you one of the last Western visitors to North Korea before COVID hit. Why did you go to North Korea during winter? That's not a time when many people like to visit that country. Indeed.

But my, our North Korean partners asked me to come. I was reluctant first. I thought, oh, winter, icy roads, freezing cold. I've lived through five winters during my STC time up there. But anyway, eventually I said, well, why not? Perhaps I don't need to travel that much, but it's good to catch up with your partners. So I went and spent a week there. Did you travel a lot? We did travel. I mean, starting off in Pyongyang, then we went to Songcheon, to Pyeongchang, and Sarawon. Of course, road conditions not terribly good. The little mini bus had no

heating, but the North Korean partners were very kind. They gave me a hot water bottle every morning to put on my lap. So that was okay. The conditions, let me say, by now, there are many different realities in North Korea. It's no longer the uniformity that we had when I went there first in 1995. And that's why it's quite important to travel to assess the situation on the ground in different areas. What did I see? I mean, you know, people were fixing the road with no heavy equipment done by hand. In the winter. In the winter. And on the other hand, I also noticed that there are more solar panels on people's houses, even in the countryside.

There is also some sort of bus service or taxi service, which I couldn't quite figure out how it worked, but it was obvious. The food situation... Were these the small red taxis with the solar panel on top that I saw in Pyeongseong? Or did you see... Again, it differs from place to place. So some were just mini buses, old mini buses. Other were more taxi-like, small cars.

So it really depends from where you go or look at. The food situation, I was told was okay. I mean overall over the past few years, and I'm not talking of the present situation, I felt the overall situation had modestly improved. But where we are now is a totally different story. Yes. Did you talk to your partners there in North Korea? For example, you mentioned the the large number of solar panels you saw on people's houses. Did you talk about that? What people use them for? Oh, they all said electricity supply is very much needed, you know, in the

houses to have lights and all that. Well, you know, it used to be candles and now it's solar panels. So that's an improvement, I think. Okay. So these are not just used to recharge a mobile phone, but they're also used for all the electricity in the house. Is that right? Depending how strong the solar panel is, you know. Okay. And what projects were you and your NGO engaged in at the time in North Korea? In Pyeongchang, we have been supporting a residential school for children with hearing disabilities.

The children of all ages? Yes, there were, well, school ages, but different ages because, you know, some children, almost young adults, didn't go to school at the time. They should have gone, so they joined later and just made their compulsory school years there. So we tried to improve the living conditions there. We also helped with some food aid and also were planning to look at supporting more vocational training for those young people. It made me realize there how important it is that the children

learn not only sign language but also to read and write. Because at that time in December, about half of the kids had already gone home for winter holidays. The other half would go a bit later. And if they can write, they can at least write messages to their parents or their family members and communicate that way. Through a mobile phone you mean or through the postal service? No, just by being at home, you know, write a little note if you want to express something. Right, because the children may be learning sign language at the residential school, but their parents are not necessarily learning it, so they can't use that at home.

Exactly, Right. Exactly. Yeah. And then in the other places, we have been supporting for quite some years, cataract operations. Mm. To restore sight to the blind. Right.

Or people were about to turn blind. Yeah. Yeah. turn blind. So over the years, we supported about 35,000 cataract operations, working with 10 different provincial hospitals across the country. And by supporting, we would provide and certain medicine, which they can't produce locally. And at one time also some basic equipment. That is still very much needed, but however, because of the sanctions, it's almost impossible to import these pieces of equipment

because they are made of metal. And to get the sanction exemption is complicated. You need to hire a lawyer. And in the end, the process is more expensive than what you are planning to deliver. Ah, okay. So I didn't realize that, that getting a sanctions exemption, you can't just fill in a form. You have to get legal representation. Well, it's a huge process, very complicated,

and everybody told me you better involve a lawyer so that you get it right because otherwise... And that's an American lawyer, right, in the United States, which is quite expensive. Probably, probably. I mean, that was the advice I got because you can go wrong and then the process goes backwards, forwards, backwards, forwards, backwards, forwards.

So anyway, we didn't do it. Because it wasn't worthwhile. It wasn't well. I mean, the cost was greater than the benefit. Exactly. Yeah. Now, as I understand it, cataracts are... Cataract surgery is a... As surgeries go, it's a relatively quick and simple procedure, but it often needs help... It's often undeveloped or developing countries that need help with that relatively quick and simple procedure, but it often needs help.

It's often undeveloped or developing countries that need help with that because they don't have the infrastructure. North Korea, it's got quite a doctors with a well-trained. Why does it need help with cataract surgery? Well, the issue is really that they cannot produce the lenses locally or the ones they did produce locally or do produce locally are apparently of not so good quality. And so these lenses, are they actually inserted into the eye? Is that how it works? The usual process and the doctors in most practically all hospital we work with have an ophthalmology department

and the doctors have been trained locally but many also in China or in Nepal. So doing the surgery I think wasn't the problem but having good material to do it was the issue. Right. Okay. So you're doing two major projects at that time, helping out with the residential school for the hearing impaired and helping out with the cataract surgery. And we did some training programs in Pyongyang at the center where they accommodate children with multiple disabilities. And in June 2019, together with two experts from Hong Kong, we provided a four-day workshop on autism and ADHD. So you were training the carers?

Yeah, carers and what was very good, also the parents. The parents had so many questions of how to handle a child with those problems. Uh-huh. In North Korea generally, is there a lack of understanding about autism? I think it's fairly recent that they have realized there is something like autism. So, what we also did, we would bring in quite a number of books so that they could learn about it because there were plans to produce an app so that more people, especially parents, could learn about it.

Right. And were these books in the Korean language? In English. Occasionally I did bring in also Korean books. If they were in a particular field, it was not a big problem. For more information about how you can access the full conversation, along with in-depth analysis and insights on North Korea and the region.