Hong Kong (AsiaNews) "I hope my new post will give me more opportunities to contribute to the wellbeing of the North Korean people. For this reason, I would prefer media attention to be focused, rather than on me, on North Korea, where there are 23 million people struggling to survive, suffering every day." Käthi Zellweger a Swiss humanitarian worker and member of the Protestant Church has just taken up a post in Pyongyang where, on behalf of the Swiss government, she will manage social and aid projects for this population in so much need.
A few days ago, Zellweger left Hong Kong after 28 fruitful years of work for Caritas Internationalis. The management of Caritas programmes for North Korea has now shifted from Hong Kong to South Korea and will be directed from Seoul.
On 19 October, the Holy See made Käthi Zellweger a Dame of St Gregory the Great - one of the most prestigious honours for her commitment to peoples most in need. "Not even my colleagues at Caritas knew about it," she said. As far as I know, it was an initiative of the Secretary of State." Mondo e Missione (World and Mission), did an exclusive interview with Käthi Zellweger. The interview was conducted by Fr John Criveller, a PIME missionary in Hong Kong. In the interview (the full version is available on the website www.mondoemissione.it) Zellweger runs through nearly three decades of commitment to the poor. Her work spanned some the most dramatic events of the end of the millennium: the exodus of Vietnamese refugees, who shored at Hong Kong between the end of the seventies and the early eighties; the opening up of China, and of its devastated provinces to the first social services after decades of total isolation, in the eighties; aid to the exhausted peoples of North Korea, starting from the mid-nineties.
And it is precisely to North Korea, ruled by one of the most iron-fisted dictatorships in the world, that Zellweger's thoughts have gone. How was it possible to have a relationship with such a difficult country? "The relationship with local officials has not always been easy, there were ups and downs. Even in China, it was like that," Zellweger admitted. "They are situations one must coexist with, but there is the need to continue building confidence, and to proceed with caution and calm." She adds: "North Korea wins you over, the people are exceptional. People are determined and they have the courage to persevere in spite of everything, without giving up."
Asked about what the most urgent need of the country is, she answered immediately: "Peace and reconciliation in the Korean peninsula. Until there is only a truce, without real peace, it will be very difficult to have significant changes."
