Displaying items by tag: North Korea

CIA Director Mike Pompeo recently made a top-secret visit to North Korea as an envoy for President Trump and met that country’s leader, Kim Jong-un. The extraordinary meeting between one of Trump’s most trusted emissaries and the head of a rogue state was part of an effort to lay the groundwork for direct talks between Trump and Kim about North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme. On 18 April respected international media outlets reported that South Korea is considering replacing the current armistice with a formal peace treaty with North Korea. This announcement as South Korean president Moon Jae-in prepared to meet Kim Jong-un on 27 April. Negotiating a peace treaty that replaces the armistice would depend on Pyongyang abandoning its nuclear ambitions. See also

Missionaries in north-eastern China are still engaged in the dangerous work of spreading the Gospel across the border to North Korea, even though at least ten missionaries and pastors have mysteriously died in recent years. They keep at it because they believe their converts will help change religious practice in the cloistered North, which equates Christianity with US-led Western imperialism. The border missionaries provide their North Korean visitors with room and board, and those escaping with places to hide. In return, they ask them to memorise Christian prayers and covertly share what they've learned when they return home.

Proposals for dialogue between North Korean and American national leaders in the midst of increasing tensions, conflicts, and fear of war have inspired International Prayer Connections (IPC) to call on Christians to pray for a just and peaceful resolution. Pray for wisdom for political, diplomatic and military leaders as they work through differences toward a goal of peace, security and freedom. Ask God to bless the efforts of citizens who seek to bridge the vast differences between these countries. Pray that, however profound the differences between their governments, Americans and North Koreans will not view each other as enemies, but on the contrary desire only the best for each other. May the decades of business, humanitarian and education contact between the two countries now bear fruit by putting a human face on those who are characterised as enemies.

Evangelical Call to Prayer for Peace on the Korean Peninsula March27, 2018

As American Christians with diverse approaches to force and nonviolence and yet all committed to pursuing peaceful relations among people and nations, we unite in prayer for permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. We do this mindful of the millions of lives, including more than 230,000 Americans, that would be threatened by an escalation of conflict there.

We are heartened by proposals for dialogue between our national leaders at a time when increasing tensions seemed to be marching our countries perilously in the direction of greater conflict, if not war. We call on all Christians everywhere to join us in praying for a just and peaceful resolution.

We pray for wisdom for our political, diplomatic and military leaders as they work across differences toward a goal of peace, security and freedom. We pray that God will bless the efforts of citizens who seek to bridge the vast differences between our countries.

Decades of people-to-people contact between North Korea and the United States- through business, educational and other humanitarian exchanges - have put a human face on those who are sometimes characterized by one another as enemies. So, we pray with empathy and in a spirit of friendship, noting the image of God in every human being. However profound the differences between our governments, we do not view the North Korean people as our enemies. On the contrary, we desire only the best for the people of North Korea.

Most of the nearly two million Korean-Americans are Christians, and many belong to evangelical churches. This community too has contact with North Koreans through humanitarian and family
ties. South Korea is also home to many evangelical churches, including some of the world’slargest. Many of these Korean brothers and sisters have been praying for North Korea for years and we humbly join them. These connections with Koreans in North Korea, South Korea and the United States strengthen our resolve to seek God for mercy and, so far as it depends on us, to pursue peace between our respective countries.

Sincerely,

Leith Anderson – President -National Association of Evangelicals
HyepinIm
President/CEO & Founder
Faith and Community Empowerment
Dr. John P Hartley Chair
Evangelicals for Peace
Rev. Johnnie Moore Founder
The Kairos Company
Nikki Toyama-Szeto Executive Director Evangelicals for Social Action

More info at:http://www.evangelicalsforpeace.org/northkorea


PRAY: Let us continue to pray that the expected upcoming meeting between President Trump with Kim Jong Un will be used of the Lord to end the conflict, denuclearize the Korean peninsula and even to make possible the reunification of the two Koreas.

No US president has ever met a North Korean leader. Madeleine Albright visited North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, but Bill Clinton was unwilling to go unless it was clear what such a meeting could achieve. A meeting with a US president is valuable to the North Koreans, but America has always declined an official visit unless a deal that will deliver a significant return is on the table. President Bush engaged North Korea in the six-party talks (two Koreas, Japan, US, Russia and China), thus avoiding Pyongyang incitements to secure its goal of direct talks. Barack Obama came to power vowing to talk directly to America's enemies, but concluded it was wrong to pander to North Korea's provocations. Trump’s potential visit (or meeting elsewhere) has given North Korea’s dynasty the prestige and propaganda that it craves, and is consistent with Trump's vow to be a disruptive global force, able to unpick one of the world's most intractable conflicts.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US president Donald Trump are to meet in person by May, it has been announced, an extraordinary overture after months of mutual hostility. This news came after South Korean officials had held talks with Mr Trump at the White House. They passed a verbal message from Mr Kim, saying the North Korean leader was ‘committed to denuclearisation’. Mr Trump hailed ‘great progress’ but said sanctions would remain in place. South Korea's President Moon Jae-in said the news was like a miracle. ‘If President Trump and Chairman Kim meet following an inter-Korean summit, complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula will be put on the right track in earnest’, he said. China welcomed the development, saying the Korean peninsula issue was ‘heading in the right direction’. However, correspondents say the North has halted missile and nuclear tests during previous talks, only to resume them when it felt it was not getting what it demanded. The dramatic announcement came days after a high-ranking South Korean delegation had met Mr Kim in Pyongyang. See

Oh Ei Sun, of the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, has said that scrapping the two-term limit on the Chinese presidency will have profound ramifications for the region. But it looks likely to happen, and Asia may have to accept that a more assertive China is here to stay. On 5 March China’s biggest two-week political meeting, Two Seasons, began. Thousands of advisors and legislative deputies will consider the election of state leaders, revising the constitution, and structural reforms. China’s elite members of the National People’s Congress will be there to rubber-stamp the end of two-term-limit of presidents. President Xi Jinping will soon be president for life - which brings cautious optimism regarding the tense situation surrounding North Korea. For when dealing with the most protracted issue - Pyongyang’s repeated attempts at developing nuclear weapons - China has, under Xi, demonstrated flexibility in its foreign policy by taking concrete actions to enforce some of the UN Security Council resolutions sanctioning the Kim regime.

As Kyung-ja drifted in and out of consciousness, her head bloodied by repeated blows from a club, she heard her North Korean guard shouting words she had never heard before - Bible, God, Jesus. She couldn’t understand why the guard kept asking about them and then beating her when she didn’t or couldn’t answer. Two months later she was transferred to a labour camp, where she asked a fellow-prisoner, ‘What is God? What is a Bible?’ The prisoner told her there was a God, but that they couldn’t discuss it because it was too dangerous. Months later, while talking on the phone with her daughter in South Korea, Kyung-ja finally got answers to her questions. Soon afterwards, she placed her faith in Christ, and today she lives and serves Him in South Korea. North Koreans will not be changed by politics or missiles. They will be changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The North Korean missile crisis must be turned into a rallying cry for prayer for persecuted Christians in that country, says Release International, which supports Christians under pressure around the world. North Korea brought forward its annual display of military might to 8 February ahead of the Winter Olympics in South Korea. The muscle-flexing has been described as grandstanding in a crisis that could threaten nuclear war - but many believe the crisis should be turned into a rallying cry for prayer for the persecuted. North Korea is probably the harshest persecutor of Christians on the face of the earth.

The situation on the Korean Penninsula remains critical. 

We would highlight the following articles and encourage our prayer partners to continue to mobilise prayer across your networks, into this tense standoff.

See our recent articles HERE

North Korean leader: The launch button is on my desk - Israel National News - Kim Jong Un warns his country has developed the capability to hit the entire U.S. mainland with nuclear weapons.

Kim Jong Un orders up larger missile with re-entry ability:The Asahi Shimbun

Kim Jong-un is 'setting a trap for the US and South Korea' | Daily Mail Online

KIM JONG UN ARMING, TRAINING CHILDREN FOR WORLD WAR 3

'North Korea is very militarized, far beyond any imagination of western powers'

Russia Warns World Faces War Worse Than Any Other In Human History