This is a rush transcript from "On the Record ," August 7, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: And now part three of your rare trip deep into the heart of the very secretive North Korea. The communist nation lets very few people inside, but Reverend Franklin Graham is one of the few.
Reverend Graham runs Samaritans' Purse, a group that makes giant humanitarian contributions around the world. And all this week the reverend takes you along to check on the status of some of their projects in North Korea.
One of the places we went to was a North Korean hospital. You will see why this hospital is in desperate need of humanitarian aid.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: Reverend, we're in a hospital you're working with, aren't we?
REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM, SAMARITANS' PURSE: Yes. And this is a hospital that needs electricity, and this is a project that we are doing with the United States government.
Watch Greta's interview with the Rev. Franklin Graham
And so this is really a very critical project, because this hospital has very little electricity. We're putting a new generator in, and we're going to help them with solar panels and battery power.
But probably the greatest need is also for equipment. Their autoclave, I just looked at it. The unit they use for cauterizations, this stuff goes back to the 1960's. and so it is well outdated.
And for just a few hundred thousand dollars, you can help upgrade this hospital in a big way.
VAN SUSTEREN: Well, we're standing here in the dark in one section of the hospital. There's some electricity behind us, but it is off.
So, besides the fact we keep walking through dark sections of the hospital, is that it's incredibly hot.
GRAHAM: It is. There isn't an air handling system here. There's no air conditioning. The doctors are back there in the operating room right now. They are of course draped with their sterile clothing, and there's no air in the room. I don't know how they do it. It's really tough.
So they need our help. We look at North Korea and we think of them as our enemy. These are people that god made and god created. God loves them.
We have big political differences, I understand that. But, for me, I'm not a politician. I want to reach out and help these people.
Doing it in the name of Jesus Christ, but I'm also an American citizen, and I'm here representing my country when we come to a place like this, and we want to give our best to them.
VAN SUSTEREN: What's really drilled home, at least for me, is we always hear about how the North Koreans need oil. When you come here and stand in the dark in hospitals and roast, and then you see what the conditions they're working under, which we saw in the operating room, it is absolutely staggering.
GRAHAM: And, Greta, the huge increase in oil prices that we have seen at home in just the last year, we think we're paying too much for gas. And it is expensive. But when you come to a poor country like this where electricity is vital and we put in a generator, they've got to buy the oil for that generator.
And for countries like this, these high oil prices just push them backwards. It devastates the whole country.
And so we need to help them with an energy source. We've got to find a way to help them keep that oil tank filled so that the generator runs. It's got to be available to them 24 hours a day.
They were doing an emergency surgery while we were there, which you were able to see part of. But without any electricity, until halfway through the operation, it came in for a few minutes, and then it goes back off. I don't know how they do it.
VAN SUSTEREN: This isn't a situation where the conditions are lousy. This is really a crisis.
GRAHAM: But one thing, I'm impressed by this hospital. There's a lot of things that don't work. But what does work here is their standards. They have a very high standard for cleanliness.
And, as you come through the halls, you can smell--it is clean. And a lot of hospitals you go to in the world are filthy. This place is clean.
And I commend the director, the staff, the nurses, for keeping a high standard. Even though they're working without electricity and luxuries that we take for granted at home, they're doing the best with what they have.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: Dr. John Litton is a doctor who practiced medicine in South Korea. He's been to North Korea a number of times, and he went with us into this deep, secretive North Korea.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: What was your impression of the hospital today?
LITTON: It is one of their better hospitals in the provinces. The cleanliness and the way it's kept and the modernness of it was actually one of their better hospitals.
VAN SUSTEREN: That's horrifying to someone like me. I've never been in a hospital where you walk through darkness because there's no electricity. It is very hot there, and they're telling us that they need all sorts of supplies. It's hard for me to think that that's the high-end hospital.
LITTON: Well, it is the high end. That's unfortunately the truth. And their lack of electricity keeps them from doing surgery, it keeps them from running their machines. It's very much a very basic hospital. I would call it more of a clinic than a hospital as far as function is concerned.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAN SUSTEREN: We're going to have more tomorrow night on our continuing series, our travel with Reverend Franklin Graham throughout North Korea.
And don't forget to go to Gretawire.com and blog. You see pictures and videos both of North Korea and basically everything else inside. Gretawire.com.
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