(CNN) Political uncertainty in the United States and in South Korea could give North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "an apt time" to develop nuclear weapons "at all costs by the end of 2017," a high-profile North Korean diplomat who recently defected to South Korea said Tuesday.
"Due to domestic political procedures, North Korea calculates that South Korea and the US will not be able to take physical or military actions to deter North Korea's nuclear development," Thae Yong-ho, formerly No. 2 at the North Korean Embassy in London, said in a news briefing, according to the Yonhap News Agency.
Thae said Kim has no plans to give up the country's nukes even if he is offered huge sums of money, saying the leader is "racing ahead with nuclear development after setting up a plan to develop it (nuclear weapons) at all costs by the end of 2017."
President-elect Donald Trump signaled last week that he will look to "strengthen and expand" the US nuclear capability, tweeting, "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." Trump's comments came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin also pledged to enhance his country's nuclear forces.
What could Trump do about North Korea? Pyongyang will try to open dialogue with Seoul's and Washington's new administrations as a nuclear-possessing state, Thae predicted of the North's strategy to obtain a nuclear power status.
Until then, North Korea will continue to launch military provocations and conduct nuclear tests in a bid to frustrate Seoul's and Washington's sanctions-concentrated policy towards Pyongyang, Thae said.
"North Korea believes that relentless provocations must shift new (South Korean and US) governments' policy lines into more stability-focused ones," he said according to the Yonhap News Agency, one of the few outlets allowed into the briefing.
North Korea has recently stipulated a dual nuclear-economic development policy to be part of the ruling party's official platform, but in reality, the decision puts nuclear development at the top priority, he said.
"Following the ruling party congress in May, Kim Jong-un made it a party policy to finish nuclear development within the earliest time possible," he told the news agency.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in October that it's a "lost cause" to try to get North Korea to surrender its nuclear weapons.
"They are under siege and they are very paranoid. So the notion of giving up their nuclear capability, whatever it is, is a nonstarter with them," Clapper said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "The best we could probably hope for is some sort of a cap."
CNN.com
New satellite photos published by a group investigating the human rights abuses in North Korea have confirmed that secret prisons where detainees are tortured, raped and murdered are expanding in terms of size.
Please pray for the frustrating and overthrow of North Korea’s efforts to develop ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear weapons across the world. Let us also continue to pray for regime reform or change so that this country can escape its prolonged isolation and deep human suffering. Pray too for the closing down of these secret prisons and the rescue of those being so horrifically abused in them.
Fox News, Dec. 29
“The major players involved in the long-running Syrian conflict have agreed to a cease-fire set to begin at midnight on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier in the day.
The deal will be guaranteed by Russia and Turkey. It's set to be followed by peace talks between Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and opposition leaders. The Syrian parties would meet in Kazakhstan for the talks, though no date has been set.
Some terror groups are to be excluded from the cease-fire, though, aside from ISIS, it's unclear which -- if any -- that refers to. The head of rebel group Fastaqim told Reuters the truce only excluded ISIS. The Syrian army earlier said the agreement would exclude ISIS, the group formerly known as the Nusra Front and any group linked to it.
Ahmad Ramadan of the Syrian National Coalition said the truce reached Thursday includes a halt to airstrikes and shelling.
Ramadan said in text messages sent to The Associated Press that members of the Free Syrian Army, a loose alliance of several moderate rebel factions, will abide by the truce -- but retaliate to violations by government and allied forces.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the truce will include 62,000 opposition fighters across Syria, and that the Russian military has established a hotline with its Turkish counterpart to monitor compliance.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said President-elect Donald Trump's administration would be welcome to join the Syrian peace process once he takes office.
Russia is a key ally of Assad, while Turkey is one of the main backers of the opposition. Several previous attempts to halt the civil war have failed.
Let’s pray for the ceasefire to hold and be observed by all parties and that these peace talks can go ahead and bring an end to this destructive conflict.
The Fall of Aleppo
December 13, 2016
I sit in safety, less than one hour by air, only a few hundred miles from the besieged city of Aleppo that today has finally fallen to the forces of the Assad regime. I hear the cries of the innocent who wait for death even as they race to find a place of safety, a way out of the inferno of madness that is war. Their cries echo through the fractures of my breaking heart, tears fall and I grieve for the unjustifiable loss of life, for the children, for the men and women who will not see tomorrow. In the wrong place at the wrong time, some are simply civilians whose crime was that they lived in a rebel enclave. Others - aid workers, rescuers who sought to save and heal, remain alongside activists for freedom – all trapped together under the threat of indiscriminate armaments roaring over their heads, exploding in their streets. War, its strategies of conquest and death, its madness and sophisticated violence, its use of ever stronger force blindly focused to eradicate all resistance whatever the cost.
The world watches, waits for the aftermath when the last enclave falls. Breaking news informs of reprisal, the inevitable massacre has begun. The execution count unashamedly includes tens of women and children, all of them deemed enemies.
Helpless to help, I can but weep and plead for mercy
The Fall of Aleppo
We close our eyes
and think because
we cannot see the darkness
it is not our own.
War in real time,
voices emerge from the rubble,
disembodied cries rise amidst the ruins.
From under mounds of wreckage
telephones still beep their signals
to an anesthetized world.
Death-rattles tweet
into the hollow bright realm
of supercomputers,
thought-fast communications.
Their android voices twitter
through labyrinthine cyber-nets,
crossing continents
at the speed of light,
disseminating darkness
as multitudes fall, swallowed
in the maw of today’s real time war.
Lisa Loden ©
December 13, 2016
Sunrise Prayer Relay
As we wrote earlier in the week, many interdenominational groups of praying people will greet the dawn of the New Year with others from all around the world as the sun rises in your own community this Sunday morning, January 1. Please join with brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for your church, city, nation and our world, trusting the Lord to do new and extraordinary things in 2017.
For more information about participating now or next year, please see this brief video and website that our Australian friends have created:
New Year’s Day 2017 Sunrise Prayer Relay Short Promo Video 1:23 Secs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0cvSl8UcE
Great Commission Prayer Summit
Prayer and mission to those who have never heard the Gospel are integrally linked. All the great breakthroughs in mission have been preceded by united prayer from the book of Acts till the present. With this in mind, the Great Commission Prayer Summit will gather those with a heart for both prayer and mission in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Jan. 19-22. Please pray for a spiritual “critical mass”, a divine explosion of His presence and power that will propel a new thrust of taking the Good News of Jesus Christ to the unreached peoples of our world. Pray for all who will be speaking and those attending to be guided clearly and stirred deeply as we prepare to take part. Here is more information about participating on site if you are able to register and come:
Theme: "Contending For Global Harvest" Expectation is Rising! We are expecting a powerful time in the presence of God from January 19-22, 2017 as we discern His heart and learn more about how to align with Him in spiritually contending for global harvest. Plan to join us in beautiful Chiang Mai, Thailand and catch God's fire of devoted prayer and intercession for the nations
http://www.svm2.net/special-events/great-commission-prayer-summit/
Youth and Children’s Prayer Movements- A Request for your Prayer Support
Please pray for crucial meetings that will be held in and near Jakarta, Indonesia, January 22-26, to plan for the further development of both the youth and children’s international prayer movements. International teams who focus on the Next Generation along with some from the IPC leadership will gather to seek the Lord together for the growth and expansion of both these movements throughout our world. Please pray with us for the following:
- God’s wisdom, clarity and unity as we pray and deliberate together on the best ways to go forward.
- The possibility of a world youth prayer assembly, including children, in 2018.
- That Christian leaders and churches worldwide will realize the importance of nurturing the prayer experience of the Next Generation and partnering with children and youth in tri-generational ministry.
- That as He has in the past, the Lord will move powerfully by His Spirit upon children and youth worldwide, calling them into relationship with Himself and using them to do great exploits in revival of the Church and reaching those who have never heard the Gospel.
As we all know and have experienced, New Year’s resolutions don’t usually work out that well due to the ingrained weakness and habits of our human nature. However, as we prepare to plunge into a new year, let us remind ourselves that we as born-again, Spirit-filled Christians have access by faith to His higher power that can fundamentally and totally transform us and our world. Paul’s word, “if anyone in Christ, he is a new creation” can and should be a recurrent reality, not just at the moment of conversion but throughout our earthly existence. It is a reality that is to be daily, even moment by moment experienced by those who walk in the Spirit through a life of prayer.
Now, at one year minus 70 years of age, I can fully agree with the former Rt. Rev. John R. W. Stott, the much-esteemed British preacher, when he bravely admitted to us young seminary students: “I am continually repenting.” Whatever sins and failures are part of our past, we can repent of and be recreated in His image. Wow, there is nothing like the Gospel and its ability to continually reinvigorate and thus transform anyone who repents, turns away from sin to trust in that power from above that can make all things new.
Two poems by my old friend, Don McCurry, former missionary to Pakistan who at about 90 years of age now is a prime example of how the Lord can continually renew and empower a human being. To the admiration of many, he still itinerates globally, making Jesus known to Muslims and teaching Christians how to love and reach out to them. What an inspiration!
Don is also a gifted poet who penned the following two very touching poems and is graciously allowing me to share them with you. They capture the continual total cleansing and supernatural new life that flow to us from Jesus’ all-powerful sacrifice and His victorious resurrection. It is these two things freely given that are the real meaning of Christmas and that guarantee that 2017 can be a year of wondrous, joyous transformation for us and also our world.
I PRESS MY CHEEK AGAINST YOUR BLEEDING SIDE
I press my cheek against your bleeding side;
My sins I no longer want to hide.
Because of what I ‘ve done, You suffered so.
There is no other place I want to go.
At your feet I sit in grief and pain,
Saying Lord, “I never want to sin again.”
It was my sin that drove You to your death,
While You cried, “Forgive him,” with your dying breath.
In sorrow and shame I sit and weep:
My heart breaks before love so deep.
“Now you are clean through my life I’ve given,
Washed by the blood from my side riven.”
Words fail – my tears are all I can provide,
As I press my cheek against your bleeding side.
Mary
Forlorn, standing there in the morning gloom;
My heart breaking besides the empty tomb.
Blinded by tears, I could not see
Christ standing there from death now free.
Supposing Him to be the garden care-taker,
I did not recognize the Lord, my Maker.
With the veil of grief covering my eyes,
I asked him to tell me where the body lies.
Then He spoke my name that glorious morn;
My heart awakened with hope reborn.
Joy filled me soul as I fell at his feet
To worship the one who death did defeat.
He would not let me hold him there;
For He had others under his care.
“Run and tell them I’m alive again;
Now they are free new life to begin.”
Listen to Him, friend, calling you by name;
From the Father for you He came.
Death, sin and Satan are defeated now;
Come to the Savior, before Him bow.
Let’s go with Him, the Lord of life and new beginnings, full of confidence and expectation as to what He can and will do through our prayers and actions this New Year!
250 million downloads of Bible app
22 Dec 2016
The free YouVersion Bible App, which lets the user read, watch, listen, and share the Word of God, has reached 250 million downloads. ‘We are humbled by how many people use the Bible App on a regular basis,’ stated Rev Bobby Gruenewald, who devised it. ‘When we made the Bible available as an app, we never imagined how much it would revolutionise the way people engage with Scripture.’ Statistics estimated that 13 billion Bible chapters have been read and listened to, and there are more than one billion highlighted bookmarks. The most popular verse of 2016 is Romans 8:28: ’And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.’
Belfast Cathedral’s ‘Black Santa’
22 Dec 2016
Back in 1976, concerned at the emphasis being placed on necessary and costly building programmes at Belfast Cathedral, Dean Crooks decided to stand in front of the cathedral with a small barrel for donations to charitable causes. Dressed in the familiar black Anglican clerical cloak, Dean Crooks ‘sat out’ each day of the week before Christmas and began the tradition of deans sitting out for charities. The local press described him as ‘Belfast's Black Santa’, and the description struck a lasting chord with the public. His successor, Dean Jack Shearer, involved members of the Cathedral Chapter in the ‘sit-out’. The event has continued to develop; the current Dean, John Mann, is ‘sitting out’ this week to collect money for local charities, with a proportion going to Christian Aid.
Friday Focus
22 Dec 2016
The World Prayer Centre, in partnership with HOPE and the Prayer Magazine, invites you to join in with Friday Focus prayer every week,starting on Friday 6 January 2017. Friday Focus 2017 provides the opportunity for us to pray where we are and unite across our nations, supporting all ongoing mission and preparing the way for future mission. HOPE’s aim is to see the entire Church mobilised during 2018 to make Jesus known. Each week Friday Focus will take a different theme: supporting national initiatives of prayer and mission; key seasons in the church’s calendar; different people-groups highlighted in the Talking Jesus report; and prompting us to pray for those we know and meet and the communities we are part of. Will you join us in seeking our Father for His ways?
A pro-Israel prime minister
22 Dec 2016
Let us give thanks that Prime Minister Theresa May has made no bones about the fact that she is a keen supporter and ally of Israel, which she called ‘a remarkable country’. In a firm speech to the Conservative Friends of Israel, our Prime Minister described Israel as ‘a beacon of tolerance, an engine of enterprise, a thriving democracy, and an example to the rest of the world for overcoming adversity and defying disadvantages.’ She talked about the shared values and positive relationship between Israel and Britain, emphasising her hopes for an even stronger friendship between the two countries post-Brexit. Crucially, in the face of parliamentary and civic attempts to derail the 2017 Balfour Centenary celebrations and force Britain to apologise for her role in creating the Jewish homeland, the PM staunchly defended the document as ‘one of the most important letters in history, which demonstrates Britain's vital role in creating a homeland for the Jewish people.’