North Korea
There is quite a bit of turmoil in North Korea as February included several missile launches following the claimed, but strongly doubted, detonation of a hydrogen bomb as reported here last month. The next big shock to come was the execution of army chief of staff, Ri Yong Gil. In the North, it is becoming increasingly dangerous to hold high office. This latest execution may well generate some strong responses domestically. All of this was followed by South Korea closing down the Kaesong Industrial Complex in response to the North's missile launches and the North retaliating by freezing what assets it could. Of course it is the "little people", the NK workers and the small to medium SK firms that bear the brunt of this. Here is some analysis of the situation. This, too, is causing increasing unrest in the North. The government's typical domestic response to all of these events is increasing propaganda that increasingly falls on deaf ears and calling for greater sacrifice such as the "70 Day Battle" leading up to 7th Party Congress in May.
Internationally, North Korea is facing more difficulty as well as China cuts down on coal and other purchases from North Korea and South Korean President, Park Geun-Hye calls for reconvening the Six Party Talks with just 5 parties, excluding North Korea.
Turning away from politics, we are glad at the progress being made by Christian Friends of Korea in dealing with both the multiple drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis and the hepatitis B crises. Another bright spot is that the Lausanne Movement is turning its focus to North Korea with a North Korea Consultation that was held at the Frontier Ventures Center (formerly US Center for World Missions) in Pasadena, CA last month. With this focus, the Movement will be raising awareness within the Global Church about North Korea, how people can minister there now--despite all the negative news--and how to prepare properly for the future (our main focus here at The Fourth River Project). I look forward to seeing good fruit from this effort.
So, as we pray for all the problems, we also thank God for what He is doing and for all of His faithful people working on the ground. We also pray that they be encouraged, blessed, protected and used by God for his Kingdom.
Ben Torrey
Director
The Fourth River Project, Inc.
