Overcoming Obstacles to Provide Humanitarian Aid to the DPRK

The United Nations and United States’ government both state that they have no intention of hurting the common people of the DPRK. Both entities in theory state that they do not wish to hinder humanitarian assistance to the elderly, pregnant women, children, and the most needy in North Korea. However, the reality of providing humanitarian aid to North Korea is quite the opposite. The current climate challenges even large NGOs to reconsider their involvement in the DPRK. Many years of overcoming governmental permits and licenses is required to continue providing life-saving humanitarian assistance to the most needy in North Korea.

This week our non-profit organization, Ignis Community, received a long awaited final permit to ship necessary medical and rehabilitation equipment to North Korea. It was a long journey of submitting various applications to multiple entities, but in the end, all licenses came through for us to continue our humanitarian assistance to the DPRK. Here is the gist of our story.

Ignis Community has been working in North Korea since 2008. Although my husband and I began traveling and working inside the country in 2007, it wasn’t until the following year that we officially registered our charitable organization in the DPRK. Since then, we have registered Ignis Community, also known as Sunyang Hana in Korean, as 501(c)3 organizations in the U.S., South Korea, and Hong Kong.

Ignis Community aims to ignite positive and sustainable support in North Korea through developing the realms of health, medicine, and education for children throughout the nation. In addition to providing food and medical assistance to remote rural areas, one of Ignis’ main projects is developing a Spine Rehabilitation Center (PYSRC) in the capital city of Pyongyang that provides medical and therapeutic services for children with cerebral palsy and other developmental disabilities. Prior to the PYSRC, no official treatment existed for children with cerebral palsy, autism, and other developmental disabilities in North Korea. These conditions were either not treated and left alone or treated with a lack of expertise and knowledge. As a result, many children were left hidden behind doors and even more did not survive in such isolating situations.

Since this medical specialty was developing for the first time in the DPRK, Ignis Community began building a specialty ward for rehabilitation on the campus of the Pyongyang Medical School Hospital. This five-story medical facility will provide both out-patient and in-patient care and services for various muscular-skeletal conditions as well as treatment for children with developmental disabilities such as cerebral palsy. Including treating patients and training doctors in this cutting edge medical specialty, the construction and development of the PYSRC program costs over a $3 million dollars.

Pyongyang Spine Rehabilitation Center (PYSRC) located on the Pyongyang Medical School Hospital Campus

Unfortunately, life-saving facilities and treatment for children with developmental disabilities is not fully covered underneath the General License #5, which allows humanitarian aid to the DPRK. General License #5 is extremely narrow in its scope allowing strictly only medicine, food, shelter, and clothing donations to the people of North Korea. Any construction of facilities, shipping of medical supplies and equipment, and other humanitarian services require multiple layers of permits and licenses from both the U.N. and the United States.

In our case, Ignis Community began applying for appropriate licenses as soon as President Obama started issuing new executive orders in 2015. The first of these hurdles was the most difficult. Ignis Community was required to obtain an OFAC license from the U.S. Treasury Department in order to channel funds and supplies to complete the development and construction of the PYSRC. We applied for the license in November 2015, but it wasn’t until October 2016 that we received our official OFAC license. Eleven months of back and forth communication with the Treasury Department was necessary before the license was finally issued.

Although this was the most difficult step, it was only the first of other requirements necessary to continue our humanitarian assistance to children with developmental disabilities in the DPRK. Next was the need to obtain a Commerce BIS license. The BIS license allows medical and rehabilitation equipment to be shipped to Pyongyang for the treatment of children with cerebral palsy and autism. Once this license was obtained, Ignis Community had to apply for an exemption from the UN Sanctions Committee. All metal, including metal found in gait trainers, walkers, needles, stethoscopes, and other medical supplies, is banned according to U.N. Resolution #2397. Without permission from the U.N. Sanctions Committee, any shipment containing metal sent to North Korea would be stopped and quarantined by China customs along the North Korea border. But despite all of these hurdles, Ignis Community was finally able to obtain all necessary licenses for the development of the PYSRC in September 2019.

However, monitoring of the project and uninterrupted treatment of pediatric patients remains an incredible challenge. Since Ignis Community was founded by and directed by U.S. citizens, we must first obtain Special Validation Passports before we can travel into the DPRK. Originally, our family was living in North Korea. We had residence in both Rason and Pyongyang with over ten years of experience working and living inside the country. But on September 1, 2017, the U.S. State Department issued a Geographic Travel Restriction to North Korea. All U.S. citizens from that point on were restricted from traveling into North Korea, and our family had to leave our home in Pyongyang for an indefinite period of time. Since then, we have had to rely upon non-U.S. team members and Special Validation Passports to continue our work inside North Korea.

The U.S. State Department allows extremely limited travel permits for U.S. citizens traveling for life-saving humanitarian purposes, media coverage, and diplomatic negotiations. Over a two-year span, Ignis Community has received four Special Validation Passports for four separate trips into Pyongyang. However, these trips have been limited in scope, and as a result, have dramatically reduced the amount of treatment and expertise Ignis can provide for children with developmental disabilities. Currently, we are awaiting an answer to our fifth application for Special Validation Passports.

The reality of humanitarian organizations on the ground in North Korea is bleak and discouraging. Humanitarian aid requires multiple layers of permits and licenses not only from the United States but from the U.N., itself. These licenses often take years to obtain. In the meantime, the common people of North Korea who are in need of humanitarian assistance are the ones who are suffering, not the government. The U.N. estimates that approximately 10 million people in North Korea are in need of humanitarian aid. International policies that have implemented U.N. sanctions to put pressure on the DPRK to denuclearize are also, in part, responsible for the humanitarian crisis in North Korea. As Chris Rice with Mennonite Central Committee states, “Humanitarian engagement should not be connected with politics. The vulnerable should not be hurt by these political shifts.”

Fortunately, Ignis Community has been able to overcome all of these obstacles to continue our humanitarian assistance to the children and citizens of North Korea. Three years of hard work has finally allowed us to receive all the permits and licenses required for us to sustain the PYSRC’s treatment and medical training program for children with developmental disabilities in the DPRK.