Franklin Graham Begins North Korea Visit

Franklin Graham arrived in North Korea on Thursday for a historic four-day visit to meet with high-level government officials, visit relief projects and preach at a newly constructed church in the capital city of Pyongyang.

"I do not come to you today as a politician or diplomat," Graham said after arriving in Pyongyang, according to the relief agency he heads, Samaritan's Purse. "I come to you instead as a minister of Jesus Christ with a message of peace - peace with God, peace in our hearts and peace with each other."

Graham is the president of Samaritan's Purse as well as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

This is Graham's second visit to North Korea - a country where he recalls his late mother, Ruth Bell Graham, had attended a mission school in the 1930s. His father, famed evangelist Billy Graham, had also visited the country in 1992 and 1994 and had met with then North Korean leader Kim Il-sung.

"In many ways, I feel like I'm coming home," Franklin Graham said. "North Korea was so close to my mother's heart, and she often told us about growing up in Pyongyang."

In addition to Graham's family ties with North Korea, Samaritan's Purse has also been working on aid projects in the country for the past year in response to devastating floods last August.

Samaritan's Purse chartered a 747 cargo jet last fall to deliver $8.3 million worth of medicine and other emergency supplies. The cargo jet was the first private flight directly from the United States to North Korea since the Korean War. The organisation has been working in North Korea since the 1990s, providing mainly medical and dental care.

The Christian relief organisation is also one of five non-governmental organisations that has been invited to help distribute food provided by the US Government to hungry North Koreans. The first shipment of grain arrived earlier this month.

North Korea is experiencing the worst level of hunger in nearly a decade, the UN Food Programme reported this week, according to Reuters. Millions of people, especially those in the north east, are in danger of starvation as a result of crop failure from the flooding and high food prices.

"What is critical for us right now is to be able to address the immediate needs, the needs of average Koreans between now and the end of the lean season," Jean-Pierre de Margerie, WFP country director for North Korea, told reporters in Beijing. "This is the period when people are hurting."

During Graham's visit, he will visit a local hospital where Samaritan's Purse installed an intensive care unit, as well as the People's Provincial Hospital in Sariwon. He is also scheduled to meet with religious leaders in the capital city.

On Sunday, he will preach at the newly-constructed Bongsu Protestant Church in Pyongyang to conclude his visit to North Korea. Bongsu is one of two Protestant churches in the city.

Graham said he believes it is a historic time for North Korea-US relations as peace talks are in progress to formally end the Korean War.

"My prayer is that this relationship will grow even stronger, and I pledge to do everything I can to make this happen," Graham said.

North Korea has arguably the worst human rights record in the world with the rogue government arresting and torturing political dissenters, those who attempt to flee the country, and Christians. There is absolutely no religious freedom in the country as all citizens are forced to worship current leader Kim Jong-il and his deceased father, Kim Il-sung. Being a Christian is the worst crime in North Korea.

Critics of North Korea have voiced skepticism about the outreach to prominent American Christian leaders, such as Graham and Rick Warren, saying that officials are only manipulating the Christian figures to improve the reclusive country's global image.