Displaying items by tag: North Korea

Friday, 01 September 2017 10:55

Theresa May on North Korea

Speaking to reporters on her way to Japan, Theresa May four times refused to rule out British action to stop North Korea’s illegal missile launches, as the rogue state threatened to increase its military tests. She called on China to do more to rein in dictator Kim Jong-un, and said such pressure was the key to easing the crisis. A British government source suggested that cyber-warfare might already be being deployed against North Korea, saying to reporters, ‘If we were doing that we certainly wouldn’t be telling you.’ Mrs May landed in Japan on 30 August, a day after a North Korean missile flew over Hokkaido. Her talks with President Shinzo Abe will focus on trade, security, and Kim’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

Published in British Isles
Friday, 01 September 2017 10:21

North Korea: brinkmanship

On 29 August North Korea launched a missile over Japan, saying that it was ‘the first step’ of military operations in the Pacific. State media also repeated threats to the US Pacific island of Guam, which it called ‘an advanced base of invasion’. Russia and China said that US military activity in the region was partly to blame for the increase in tensions. BBC correspondent Jonathan Marcus reported, ‘Launching a rocket over Japanese territory, with the possibility that it could deposit debris on Japanese soil, shows that Pyongyang is intent on maintaining its brinkmanship. However, it is noteworthy that North Korea did not make good on its threat to direct a missile towards the US Pacific territory of Guam - something that might well have precipitated a US military response.’ See also British Isles article 4, ‘Theresa May on North Korea’.

Published in Worldwide

Ecclesiastes 9:17,18 says, ‘The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.’ Tensions around Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are dangerous. No one is backing down in their war of words. Yesterday Trump implied in a tweet that he had North Korea to back down over its threat to Guam. It is a dangerous misperception that could cause the crisis to escalate. Trump could miss the best chance he will have to halt the missile tests that threaten the American homeland. Anxious about annual US-South Korea military exercises that begin next week, Pyongyang has presented the US with clear choices: reduce tensions or face a destabilising missile strike to the waters around Guam. Kim Jong-un is waiting to see what the ‘foolish Yankees’ do next. Pray for God's protection over Korea, Japan, Guam, and the USA.

Published in Worldwide
Friday, 11 August 2017 10:15

Guam: North Korea/USA sabre-rattling...

Guam is a 210-square-mile sovereign US territory and military base in the western Pacific Ocean. 92% of the population are professing Christians. On 10 August North Korea defied threats of ‘fire and fury’ from Donald Trump, deriding his warning as a ‘load of nonsense’ while announcing a detailed plan to launch missiles aimed at the waters off the coast of Guam. This comment caused Trump’s deputy assistant, Sebastian Gorka, warn Pyongyang, ‘Do not challenge the United States because you will pay a cost if you do so.’ Meanwhile Hawaii has started preparing for a nuclear strike, starting with a new educational campaign to help residents and visitors know what to do in the event of a nuclear missile attack and they will start testing a new ‘wailing’ emergency siren on the first workday of each month. Pray for the Guam church to rise up, speaking the hope and faith into their communities that overcomes fear.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/36092282/amid-rising-tensions-north-korea-threatens-preemptive-strike-against-guam

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Damian Green, the UK’s first secretary of state, urged the Trump administration to use the UN processes to resolve the crisis between the United States of America and North Korea. He said, ‘It’s obviously in all our interests to make sure that nothing escalates,’ and, ‘we are very strongly in support of the UN process, which has put, and continues to put, pressure on North Korea to stop acting in an irresponsible way.’

Published in British Isles

We are sharing this word about North Korea, from Rick Ridings who many readers will remember from the World Prayer Assembly:

My friend Dutch Sheets sent out a call to prayer and prophetic word concerning North Korea yesterday on July 7th.  That same day, I was with a team at the border of North Korea to pray.  I had been speaking for a conference in Seoul, and the Lord had spoken beforehand to go after my speaking to the DMZ, the “Demilitarized Zone” along the cease-fire line that became the border with North Korea. I have ministered in conferences in South Korea many times in the past seven years, but never felt I had a release from the Lord to go to the DMZ.  But this time, I felt a compulsion to go there for a specific ‘prophetic action’.

We went as a group of five, including a pastor who had escaped from North Korea, and who leads a church in the area near the DMZ.  Two other local Korean pastors joined us there, making a team of seven praying on 7.7 on the Gregorian calendar and during the year 5777 on the Hebrew calendar.

I felt strongly that I was to drop a plumb line there, and proclaim from Isaiah 28:14-18 over the regime of North Korea.  These verses speak of floods of water ”overflowing” hidden lies, exposing them and sweeping them away.  It says that the flood will come in waves like a whip against those evil rulers, and annul their covenant with death.  

When I proclaimed the same verses in Washington, D.C., in January 2016  (Patti and I were leading worship in “David’s Tent”, a place of 24/7 worship and prayer at the base of the Washington Monument), I stated that flooding would happen in Washington as a sign that the Lord would do this spiritually.  Immediately afterward, heavy rains started, and the next day the Washington newspapers reported flooding there, and soon after that many political secrets were exposed.  

The same thing happened along the DMZ region bordering with North Korea!  As I finished proclaiming these spiritual floods to expose the lies and sweep away the North Korean regime, a heavy downpour of rain started (during a time they had been experiencing unusual drought), and the next day, the news reported flooding in that area along the DMZ.

I had taken a small piece of the Berlin Wall that I threw over the barbed wire face declaring that the same LORD who brought down the Berlin Wall and Soviet communism in a sudden surprise, would bring down the barrier between North and South Korea to reunite them and bring healing to the Land.

I was in prayer conferences in Germany during the time preceding the reunification of Germany.  I had heard their sincere confession of the sins of their forefathers and their nation towards the Jewish people.  And we proclaimed at that time, as they had humbled themselves in many corporate gatherings and confessed the sins of the nation (as in 2 Chronicles 7:14), that the LORD would heal their divided land as He promised.

I have now been in, and know of, many conferences where South Koreans have confessed the sins of their nation, and felt this was the time I was to proclaim that the LORD has heard and will bring about the reunification of Korea with a sudden event. Only afterward, did I find out that Dutch Sheets had sent out on the same day we prayed at the DMZ (July 7th) a prayer alert where he explained that he had recently prophesied in South Korea that “…the man-made barrier between North and South Korea would be removed, and the rebirth/rebuilding/ restoration of all of Korea would happen so amazingly fast that it would be a sign and a wonder to the world”.

I believe that Satan would love to use North Korea to bring great devastation upon the world, and to hinder the LORD’s calling on all of Korea to be a great missionary sending nation, especially impacting the Middle East.  But our God is greater!  Let us pray for His plumb line of justice and righteousness to continue to be extended over North Korea, for His floods to expose their regime’s lies, to “annul its covenant with death”, and to bring about its collapse and the liberation of North Koreans to worship the LORD.  Let us pray for all of Korea to be one reunited, healed and mighty missionary sending nation!

Rick Ridings
http://www.succathallel.com

Friday, 07 July 2017 14:51

North Korean missiles, Trump, and the G20

Donald Trump ordered a ballistic missile drill with South Korea on 5 July, firing missiles north in response to North Korea's launching a test ballistic missile, which could reach Alaska, the previous day. At the G20 summit in Hamburg, Trump will come face-to-face with his Chinese and Russian counterparts following their recent joint statement on North Korea. In it they vowed to work together on a diplomatic solution to Pyongyang's nuclear threat. Onlookers are wondering if Mr Trump will personally repeat his recent tweet which attacked China's trade with North Korea and questioned Beijing's loyalties. The US secretary of state said the missile test escalated the threat to the USA, the region, and the world; Trump said he is 'prepared to retaliate against North Korea ALONE'.

Published in Worldwide

Robert Maginnis who once was a Pentagon insider has helped guide our prayers about security issues. Here is his analysis about some of the hot spots of our world:

Mattis declares North Korea “most urgent.”  The Washington Post reports Defense Secretary Jim Mattis declared North Korea the “most urgent and dangerous threat to peace and security” in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee.  That statement bumps Russia from first place among the threats facing the U.S.  The change comes as Pyongyang moves forward with what the U.S. calls an unprecedented number of tests on nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. “North Korea’s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them has increased in pace and scope,” Mattis said.  “The regime’s nuclear weapons program is a clear and present danger to all, and the regime’s provocative actions, manifestly illegal under international law, have not abated despite United Nations’ censure and sanctions.”  

South Korea’s president says denuclearizing North is matter of survival.  Yonhap News reports South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed to work with Japanese and American leaders to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons, calling it a threat to his country’s survival.  “North Korea’s denuclearization is needed to ensure peace in the world and Northeast Asia, but for South Korea, it is a matter of survival,” Moon said.  Japanese leaders stressed to South Korea the need to keep the pressure and international sanctions on Pyongyang until the communist state abandoned its nuclear ambitions.   "President Moon said because it will not end with only pressure and sanctions, we must bring North Korea back to the negotiating table before we can completely denuclearize the North," Park told a press briefing.

Robert Lee Maginnis
https://www.facebook.com/RLMaginnis/

Pray that a peaceful way will be found to bring the North Korean regime to denuclearize their country and avoid all out military conflict with the U.S. and South Korea. War that would result in possibly hundreds of thousands dying in the two Koreas is unthinkable.

Friday, 30 June 2017 14:46

North Korea: arrested after meeting family

A North Korean man has been arrested on 'spying' charges after meeting Christian relatives in China. Kim Seung-mo, 61, was arrested early in June after visiting family in China's Jilin province, which borders North Korea. A local source said, ‘After he came back, he openly told his neighbours that his relatives attended a church, whose pastor collected many used clothes from parishioners for him. It seems that someone informed state security agents. All travellers to China are required to report their whereabouts and details about their activities. Kim was charged with spying because he did not report that his relatives are churchgoers, and that the pastor had helped him.’ Kim was reportedly 'shackled and tied with rope ... There were obvious signs of violent assault because he had split lips and black eyes, and he appeared to have sustained an injury to one of his legs'.

Published in Worldwide

South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in, said on 20 June that North Korea should repatriate South Koreans and Americans detained in the reclusive country. American student Otto Warmbier, arrested for theft of a political notice while visiting North Korea as a tourist, was held prisoner for 17 months. He has died at a Cincinnati hospital just days after being released from captivity - in a coma, his parents said. Doctors caring for him said he had extensive brain damage. Three other United States citizens (ethnic Koreans) and six South Koreans remain in custody. President Moon deplored North Korea’s lack of respect for human rights, and said his government will make every effort to obtain the return of the detainees. US President Donald Trump blamed the ‘brutality of the North Korean regime’ for Mr Warmbier’s death. Several of those detained are Christian missionaries charged with subversion. North Korea defends its ‘sovereign right to ruthlessly punish’ US citizens held for crimes against the state.

Published in Worldwide