Eugene Bell Foundation calls for support to treat more TB patients in North Korea
SEOUL, Aug. 17 -- The head of the Eugene Bell Foundation Korea on Wednesday voiced hope that more tuberculosis patients in North Korea could receive timely medication even at a time of heightened inter-Korean tensions.
Stephen Linton, chairman of the charity group, said the foundation faced "serious" disruption in running its program to treat North Korean patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in early 2016 due to tension on the divided peninsula.
He said that a delay in South Korea's approval of its medication shipment to the North and Pyongyang's issuance of visas delayed the delivery of its regular spring shipment by about a month.
"Unless our program can transcend politics and tensions, maintaining a responsible program becomes impossible," Linton said at a press conference in Seoul that touched on the trip to North Korea earlier this month.
The foundation has long provided medical humanitarian assistance to North Korea, especially for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
Linton said that the delay in the medication delivery has made it impossible for the charity group to accept 500 new TB patients which it had hoped to enroll this spring.
The group has so far provided TB medication to about 1,500 patients in North Korea with plans to register an additional 1,000 patients this year.
Seoul has suspended civilian inter-Korean exchanges and South Koreans' visits to North Korea since Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test in January.
He said that the group has recently earned the Seoul government's approval to deliver TB medication to the North slated for November.
Linton called for South Koreans and the Seoul government to provide support for non-government exchange programs with North Korea despite high inter-Korean tension.
"Ultimately, people in South and North (Korea) must decide if vital private sector exchanges can be protected from the chronic tensions on the Korean Peninsula... Koreans should remember that people die because of tensions as well as direct conflict."
Source: Yonhap News Agency
