Seeds Will Grow

Cross-posting the following November 24, 2025 article from LiCAS.news (source):

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A Catholic Swiss aid worker with three decades of on-the-ground experience in North Korea has warned that international sanctions are worsening the hardship of ordinary citizens, even as the country remains sealed off from nearly all humanitarian access.

Speaking at the “Forum for Sharing Peace on the Korean Peninsula,” organized by the Archdiocese of Seoul to mark its 30 years of peace advocacy, Katharina Zellweger said punitive measures linked to Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programs are doing little to pressure the leadership but are triggering new levels of deprivation among the poor.

In a report by the Vatican’s Fides News Agency, Zellweger said North Korea “is subject to extremely strict sanctions due to its missile and nuclear programs.”

“The sanctions are having an effect, but instead of harming the regime, they are primarily affecting the North Korean population,” she said. 

She warned that sanctions “are leading to a downward spiral for the poor, and malnutrition appears to be spreading again throughout the country.”

Zellweger previously directed a Caritas Hong Kong aid program in the North and later worked with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. 

She lived in Pyongyang from 2006 to 2011 and now heads KorAid, an NGO working to support people with disabilities in several countries, including North Korea.

She said the country has become entirely inaccessible since the pandemic. “The door to North Korea is currently closed – for South Koreans, for NGOs, for the United Nations,” she noted. 

She said she remains confident that the impasse will eventually give way to renewed engagement, noting that decades of fluctuating access have taught her that progress often returns slowly and demands sustained patience and determination.

Witness to famine and early humanitarian efforts

Zellweger first entered the country in 1995 while managing an aid program for needy and disabled children. 

She said she confronted “the harsh reality and the incredible suffering” brought by the famine that devastated the population.

“From then on, Caritas’ involvement began through a program managed from Hong Kong. Year after year, we launched fundraising appeals and were able to provide food aid, as well as development work in agricultural cooperatives and assistance in hospitals. In addition, we incorporated aspects of development cooperation, including training programs. It was pioneering work at the time.”

She said her work with Swiss organizations was grounded in impartiality and respect, an approach that shaped every stage of engagement. 

This framework later made it possible to establish initiatives such as the Pyongyang Business School, which operated for four years and provided young North Koreans with access to training programs, conferences, and study opportunities.

Her current organization, KorAid, focuses on supporting people with disabilities in the North, a group estimated at roughly 1.6 million individuals or 6.2 percent of the population. 

She said the group was established to respond to this need and, between 2015 and 2019, carried out more than 30,000 [rehabilitation programs.]

Reflecting on her decades of work in the country, she said the experience taught her to approach North Korea with patience, determination, flexibility, and a readiness to understand its worldview. 

Over the years, she grew to admire the courage and resilience of North Korean people and the way they continue to carve their own path despite difficult circumstances.

Church’s peacemaking role and urgent humanitarian needs

Zellweger said the Church in South Korea continues to nurture the hope for reconciliation between the two Koreas, maintaining a steady presence in efforts toward healing and dialogue. 

She noted that some organizations still manage to deliver limited assistance inside the North, including recent UNICEF shipments of millions of vaccine doses and containers of food and essential medicines for malnourished children. 

UN data she cited show that hunger remains widespread, with more than 10 million people affected and a significant percentage of young children experiencing stunted growth. For her, supporting children and strengthening healthcare remain vital entry points for long-term development.

She also urged a renewed commitment to peace diplomacy, which she described as a holistic process involving peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding. 

These approaches, she said, rely on negotiation, dialogue, and trust, and require the engagement of government, civil society, academia, and young people. 

Even with the North largely closed off, she stressed the importance of continuing to create conditions that could eventually support durable peace, starting within South Korea.

Looking ahead to World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul, she said the gathering could help inspire greater awareness and responsibility among young South Koreans, many of whom she sees as disengaged from issues affecting the North. 

She encouraged Catholic schools and universities to play a more active role in fostering understanding and building relationships that could one day bridge the divide between young people on both sides of the peninsula.