Search

Results

Unequivocal condemnation

31 May 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Filled with the Holy Spirit, the disciples began to speak in different tongues, we hear in the Acts of the Apostles. Though they speak different tongues, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council denounced with one voice North Korea's underground detonation of a nuclear device Monday. Tensions rose through the week as North Korea tested short-range missiles and appeared to restart production at its main nuclear facility. On Tuesday North Korea decried a South Korean decision to join a U.S.-led initiative to search ships carrying suspicious cargoes to prevent trafficking of weapons of mass destruction. North Korea said that as a result of the South's action, which it considered tantamount to a declaration of war, it was abandoning the truce that ended the Korean War. It pledged to attack if its ships were stopped. Meanwhile, South Korean news reports say that steam has been seen coming from a plant at the North's main nuclear facility, a sign that it may have made good on its threat to restart efforts to make weapons-grade plutonium. Antagonisms had already risen significantly across the Korean peninsula in recent weeks. Last month North Korea launched a long-range rocket over Japanese airspace, angering the international community. Pyongyang said the rocket carried a satellite, but several nations viewed it as a cover for a missile test. The Security Council is working on a stronger resolution condemning North Korea's actions, including possible punitive measures. Washington is calling for a quick and unified response that will make it clear to Pyongyang that there are consequences for its actions. But U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the door was still open to resume long-running six-party talks and that the U.S. was looking at a "whole range of options." "We are thinking through complicated issues that require very careful consideration," said Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Source: An article by the BBC

nuclear weapons missiles north korea united nations security council south korea pyongyang

Restricted
Korea hands down harsh sentences for journalists

14 Jun 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Moses wrote down the words of the Lord, we hear in this Sunday's reading from the Book of Exodus. Two U.S. journalists arrested in North Korea for reporting on and writing down a sensitive story without government authorization were sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp Monday, as the government of Kim Jong Il continued to ratchet up tension with its neighbors and the United States. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, television reporters detained in March along North Korea's border with China, received harsher sentences than many outsiders had expected. But several experts in South Korea predicted that talks would soon negotiate their release. Ling and Lee were working for Current TV, a cable and Web network cofounded by former vice president Al Gore, when they were apprehended March 17 by North Korean soldiers along the border with China. The reporters were working on a story about North Koreans who flee the country, but the circumstances of their arrest are not clear. The State Department last week did not rule out the possibility that Gore might fly to North Korea to negotiate the reporters' release. The detention and sentencing of the two journalists has coincided with--and become entangled in--a series of provocative acts by North Korea this spring that have angered its neighbors, its historical allies, and much of the world. The heavily armed, secretive state, in the midst of a succession process as the country's ailing leader prepares to hand power over to his youngest son, launched a long-range missile in April, detonated an underground nuclear bomb in May, and has renounced the truce that ended the Korean War. On Monday North Korea warned fishermen and boat captains to stay away from the country's east coast, Japan's coast guard said. The North is planning to launch several medium-range missiles from the region, according to reports in the South Korean press. Wednesday, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council approved a draft resolution that would significantly expand export limits and financial restrictions on North Korea and leave open the possibility of widening inspections of North Korean cargo vessels. North Korea has said that any attempt to stop its vessels would be considered an act of war. Source: Articles by Blaine Harden for the Washington Post, Edith M. Lederer for Associated Press, and Neil MacFarquhar for the New York Times

north korea labor camp euna lee laura ling kim jong il journalists south korea united nations security council al gore

Restricted
No smooth sailing for president in Asia

22 Nov 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday's reading from the Book of Revelation, speaking of Jesus, promises that "every eye will see him." But when it came time for President Barack Obama's much-ballyhooed "town hall meeting" during a visit to China this week, Chinese authorities carefully limited who could participate in or view it. The rest of his Asian trip was an equally mixed bag, analysts said. Chinese authorities largely hijacked the supposed give-and-take with Chinese students at the Shanghai gathering by stuffing the auditorium with young Communist Party aspirants. Access to a broadcast of the event was strictly limited. Obama did manage to offer a veiled critique of China's rigid controls and restrictions on the Internet and free speech but without mentioning, let alone condemning, China's government. Obama and Chinese president Hu Jintao presented two days of talks as substantive, even though they didn't appear to make much progress on issues like Iran, monetary policy, or human rights. Obama did, nonetheless, give an interview to Southern Weekly, one of China's most popular newspapers, sometimes known for poking the authorities by breaking news on delicate subjects. Obama's stop in Japan earlier in the trip went better. Tokyo welcomed him as much as a celebrity as a world leader, with cries of "Obama-san!" from the people who gathered in the rain to watch his motorcade pass. And the critical chatter from right-wing bloggers back at home over Obama's deep bow to Emperor Akhito did not seem to detract from the trip. Obama's aides said he was unfazed by the criticism. The president ended his trip with a stop Wednesday in South Korea, a longtime ally that has been cooperating with the United States on vital issues like North Korea. Source: An article by Helene Cooper and Martin Fackler for the New York Times

barack obama emperor akhito japan southern weekly shanghai town hall meeting hu jintao south korea asia china tokyo

Restricted
The two Koreas study war some more

28 Nov 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

At the advent of a new church year this Sunday we are treated to the prophet Isaiah’s poetic and inspiring promise of a world one day at peace: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” Events on the Korean peninsula this week suggest that long-awaited day has not yet arrived. South Korea Tuesday threatened to retaliate for North Korea's deadly shelling of a South Korean island military installation, while U.S. officials scrambled to avert any catastrophic escalation of hostilities after one of the most serious confrontations on the Korean peninsula in decades. The North’s surprise bombing of the instillation, which killed two soldiers, burned homes, and injured 19 people, sent South Koreans fleeing the west-coast island of Yeonpyeong as their government put the air force on high alert and declared that North Korea would face massive retaliation if it launched further attacks. President Obama and South Korea’s president agreed Tuesday night to hold joint military exercises as a first response to the shelling, as both countries struggled for the second time this year to keep a North Korean provocation from escalating into war. U.S. officials and allies also began trying to round up support for a United Nations Security Council statement that would condemn Pyongyang's action, diplomats said. Analysts see the North’s attack in part as the lashing out of an increasingly isolated and impoverished nation demanding to be taken seriously on the world stage. “The regime wants respect,” says analyst Jean H. Lee, adding that the decision to show off a new uranium enrichment plant to a U.S. scientist recently was a clear ploy to pressure Washington and Seoul and remind the allies that the North expects to be taken seriously. Source: Articles by Paul Richter and John M. Glionna for the Los Angeles Times, Jean H. Lee for the Associated Press, Hack Kim and Lee Jae-won for Reuters, Sunny Yang, Mimi Hall, and Tom Vanden Brook for USA TODAY, and David E. Sanger and Mark McDonald for the New York Times

north korea south korea yeonpyeong jean h lee bombing

Restricted
Korean divide grows sharper

07 Apr 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The resurrected Christ comes to the fearful disciples with a calming message in the gospel for this Second Sunday of Easter: “Peace be with you.” An agitated and long-divided Korean peninsula could use a calming message of peace as well but as world leaders nervously look on, statements from officials in the North and the South have become increasingly bellicose in recent days.President Park Geun-hye of South Korea ordered the country’s military on Monday to deliver a strong and immediate response to any North Korean provocation, the latest turn in a war of words that has become a test of resolve.Ratcheting up the rhetoric, North Korea warned early Thursday that its military has been cleared to wage an attack on the U.S. using "smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear" weapons.The U.S. Defense Department meanwhile said that it will deploy a missile defense-system to the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam to strengthen regional protection against a possible attack from North Korea. Pentagon officials said the U.S. was seeking to defuse the situation.North Korea has railed for weeks against joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises taking place in South Korea and has expressed anger over tightened sanctions for a February nuclear test. But despite the rhetoric, analysts say they do not expect a nuclear attack by North Korea, which knows the move could trigger a suicidal war that would shatter their fragile, insular state.Homily hint: Fear holds back many of those who first heard the testimony of the risen Lord. Fear seems to be the modus operandi of the North Korean regime. What can open societies and people of faith offer to help countries like North Korea overcome their fear and join the larger community of nations? Sources: Articles by Mark Landler and Choe Sang-Hun for theNew York Times and Jean H. Lee for the Associated Press

missiles north korea south korea park geun-hye pentagon

Restricted