Baptist notes improved health among North Korean orphans

DALLAS—A Korean Texas Baptist will travel to North Korea next month to ensure the delivery of 60 tons of corn and 10 tons of wheat noodles to schools, orphanages and a hospital, and he expects to deliver an equally large shipment later in the year.

Ophthalmologist Sara Yoon confers with North Korean doctors at the Kangwon province hospital in Wonsan City, North Korea.Yoo Jong Yoon—director of the Korean-American Sharing Movement of Dallas—has journeyed to North Korea more than two dozen times since 1996. Typically, his trips include supervising delivery of corn and other food supplies provided by Texas Baptist Men and other donors. 

“The Lord has opened many doors to share his love” in North Korea, he said. Texas Baptist Men and several churches and individuals have helped meet needs among orphaned children through food shipments, he noted.

“Their health has been improved greatly because of your love for them,” he said. “They are ‘the least of these,’ whom the Lord has entrusted to you and me.”

Ophthalmologist Sara Yoon examines a patient at a North Korean hospital.Yoon, former Korean mission field consultant with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, also plans to deliver medical books and supplies for physicians, as well as accompany two medical teams of eye specialists and dentists to work in the Kangwon province hospital in Wonsan City. Baylor Scott & White Health has provided equipment and supplies to the hospital through its Faith in Action Initiatives.

In September, Yoon traveled to North Korea with his wife, June, and daughter, Sara, who was the first ophthalmologist to visit the hospital in Wonsan City. She examined five patients and conferred with five doctors there.

The Yoons also visited a junior high and high school for orphans in Moon-Chon, about 15 miles north of Wonsan City. Yoon’s ministry helped provide corn noodles to the school since 2012, but the trip marked the first time he was permitted to visit that school.