The United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency (UNKRA) was an economic reconstruction program created by the United Nations to bolster war devastated South Korea. The proposal for the program was drafted by the United States in 1950 after victory by United Nations forces appeared rapidly obtainable. On December 1, 1950, the General Assembly enacted the program. However, Chinese entrance into the Korean War by October 1950 had dispelled the expectation of promptly beginning a rebuilding program. After an armistice was agreed to in 1953, reconstruction began and focused on aiding war refugees and homeless. Nearly USD 150 million was contributed to the program, a majority of funds were paid by South Korea's primary benefactor, the United States, although even developing nations such as Mexico made contributions. The program closed in 1958 after no more funding was made available.
Famous quotes containing the words united nations, united, nations and/or agency:
“The heroes of the world community are not those who withdraw when difficulties ensue, not those who can envision neither the prospect of success nor the consequence of failure—but those who stand the heat of battle, the fight for world peace through the United Nations.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name.... We must be impartial in thought as well as in action ... a nation that neither sits in judgment upon others nor is disturbed in her own counsels and which keeps herself fit and free to do what is honest and disinterested and truly serviceable for the peace of the world.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Of all the nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody’s image. It was the land of the unexpected, of unbounded hope, of ideals, of quest for an unknown perfection. It is all the more unfitting that we should offer ourselves in images. And all the more fitting that the images which we make wittingly or unwittingly to sell America to the world should come back to haunt and curse us.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“It is possible that the telephone has been responsible for more business inefficiency than any other agency except laudanum.... In the old days when you wanted to get in touch with a man you wrote a note, sprinkled it with sand, and gave it to a man on horseback. It probably was delivered within half an hour, depending on how big a lunch the horse had had. But in these busy days of rush-rush-rush, it is sometimes a week before you can catch your man on the telephone.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)