Worthy News: N Korea faces choice between food and arms - Financial Ti

[chimoku]

As far as the drunks, addicts, and plain mean criminal homeless, I must say the Bible has some PRETTY STRICT RESTRICTIONS on just who is allowed to receive church welfare, AND THEY AIN'T ON THE LIST!!!

Really?

What kind of Bible would that be?

Mine says:

I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,

Iwas a stranger and you invited me in,

I needed clothes and you clothed me,

I was sick andy ou looked after me,

I was in prison and you came to visit me .

Seems to me that our Lord came for the 'sick' and not for the healthy . His words; not mine

[Leonard]

I already said we should help them with food, clothing and blankets whenever we can, but you have chosen to take part of my comments out of their context. This is simply a base and false-playing TACTIC, and does NOT portray what I said. The use of such a false-playing tactic reflects poorly on your character.

Anyone who reads my comments will see it is specifically the Church welfare roles which have very tight restrictions. The Bible (any translation you care to check) limits Church welfare roles to widows 60+ years of age, who have been Christians for a long while, very shining examples of hospitality, and who do not have any children to help them out.

[ted]

N. Korea is a very strange little nation. It was born during the communist land-grab times of the late'40s and '50s.

Basically, the invasion from the north (Russian-Chinese plan) wasn't supposed to be a big deal. It was supposed to be over in a few weeks and it was expected for the world to ignore the invasion.

The UN, under pleas from the US, actually acted quickly on it (in one of the UN's last worthy projects) and stopped the invasion.

Actually, under MacArthur's command, the UN forces eventually camped out right on the Chinese border and planned to invade China to get to the real problem of the invasion: The Chinese.

Had MacArthur not been shuttled back to the US and canned, that's exactly what would have happened.

But no, invading China would not have been correct, so now, we have a North and South Korea still in a state of war. There has never been a peace accord signed, and technically, they are still at war. Each side just sort of quit shooting, for the most part.

Next, we have the war of support coming on to the scene. The US has carried the South, and the North was to be carried by China with help from Russia. The South has flourished, and the North has been forgotten. Funny how that works, huh?

I spent over two years in Korea during the 90's. Times have both changed and remained the same over there. Kim, Il Song was the leader during those days. Not much had changed for almost 50 years. Not much at all.

Then, Daddy dies and his son took over. Daddy Kim understood world politics (at least as to how it affected his country), but his son has no idea how to do it. He's made it even worse over there.

Natural disasters have also played a big part in the woes of the nation. Droughts, followed by flooding, followed by more droughts and more flooding have left what little land they have for farming next to useless. The entire society is built around their leader and enforced through tough-handedness. The common citizen today has no concept of world events. Many do not know that people have walked on the moon, for instance. It's a closed society in the most dramatic sense of the term.

It's been over 50 years now since the general cease-fire came to be. Many of the people that knew an undivided Korea have passed on. What is left is a nation of people that is cut off from the world and fed only what their leader puts on the plate- both in the educational sense and in the physical sense. The country has been ravaged by natural disasters and the situation is then worsened by their leadership's inability to lead.

Today, the little nation faces some hard choices. They feel that they must either force the hands of the world to help them (most notably through that theat of nuclear war), or perish altogether. They have backed themselves into a corner for the past 50 years, and now have no way out of their situation. It's a dangerous place that needs to be dealt with soon.

What we are watching is something out of the history books. North Korea is the last bastion of old style Russian/Chinese Communism, and they have no idea how to break out of their self-imposed isolation. So, they figure fear might work. Hence, the threat of nuclear weapons and an attack.

In one way, I'm surprized that the citizens have yet to rebel and revolt, but on the other hand, I'm not. It's hard to understand, but they really have no concept of the idea. If you were 56 years old and have been locked in a closet your whole life and told that Santa Clause was real and he's coming to kill you if you didn't believe in him, you'd believe in him pretty quick- especially if there was no one there to tell you that he's not real.

I can't think of another nation that is more in need of real prayer today. The people have no idea of what is going on around them. Some of the older ones might, but it's been so long since they tasted freedom. It's been so long since they have seen another way. The young scoff at their tales of how things used to be, much in the same way our own young laugh and snicker at our elderly's tales of 5 cent loaves of bread. The young have been taught to ignore anything from the old as to how things were and dismiss them as lies. In the mean time, the young are taught of the great nation and how things would be different if the evil US would only take it's foot off of them.

There is hope, though. Korean Missions are rare, but there are a few. A few that have seen Jesus and are willing to share the news.

We must pray for them in the hopes that the Good News will reach enough people there. Hopefully, all the way to the top!

We may think that their army is strong and well fed, and that they are physically taken care of while the rest of the nation starves, but it is simply not true. Their army is starving, too. Only a few at the top are well fed and taken care of, and that's a fact. If anyone thinks Saddam was living it up, wait until we go into N. Korea and see what Little-Kim has done with the place.

No, their army suffers with the rest of the country. They may have the will to fight (albeit a false motivational will), but they don't have the substinance to do so. Their food is gone, their equipment is old, out-dated, and in disrepair. Their leadership is in turmoil and their defeat is certain. Is it any wonder that their leader knows that the threat of nuclear war is their only option?

But there are two other options:

1. Their leadership coming to their senses and doing the right thing, and,

2. Christ Jesus.

Pray for them.

t.

[Marnie]

Really?

What kind of Bible would that be?

Mine says:

I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,

Iwas a stranger and you invited me in,

I needed clothes and you clothed me,

I was sick andy ou looked after me,

I was in prison and you came to visit me .

Seems to me that our Lord came for the 'sick' and not for the healthy . His words; not mine

If you read your Bible carefully, our Lord is talking to individual believers, not government entities. It is the job of the Church and Christians in general. Please don't apply those verses to bolster the notion that the government--any government--has to do it. People need to be given freedom to create prosperity for themselves. Any kind of oppression kills the creative spirit within a man; man's spirit was created to be free. Governments exist to quench that freedom. AK is right, unchecked capitalism is not a good thing, but capitalism as a guiding philosophy, tempered with the Word, will always result higher standards of living.

[chimoku]

Leonard:

I apologize - it seems I was a bit abrupt towards you with my post.

It was not intended to disparage your contibution or you in anyway - just offered my perspective - shootong back from the hip and I recognize it was taken as being offensive ...

So, my apologies.

I think we can disagree or continue on from our different persuasians on this in Christian spirit.

Anyone who reads my comments will see it is specifically the Church welfare roles which have very tight restrictions.

So, how would you incorproate the situation of the 'Man who fell among the thieves' ( Luke 10) in that light ?

[chimoku]

But there are two other options:

1. Their leadership coming to their senses and doing the right thing, and,

2. Christ Jesus.

Pray for them

Certainly it has been the American presence along with the strong Christian presence in South Korea that has contributed to the stability there.

A friend of mine who is Korean Christian believes that unificationof North Korea and South Korea is inevitable and it is her belief that this unification will open the door to further the Christian faith into the North without the kind of resistance there is today. Personally - I am not so sure it would be a good thing . . .

What is ironic is that North Korea used to be a decidely Christian before the Communists took over in 1945.

Apparently Pyung Yang, the Capital of North Korea, was once called the

[O'Dannyboy]

I don't agree with the notion that it is not the governments responsibility to care for its poor. Forgive me, but that is what I am hearing. The way I am hearing it, you folks are justifying North Koreas misapropriation of its resources. Since the governments of the world bear no responsibility to provide for its poor, they are all free to spend any perceived surplusses on usefull things like nuclear or chemical weapons, something the world can seemingly never have enough of. From what I have seen and heard, North Koreas government is using practically all of its aid from other nations to support its military and leaving its citizens to fend for themselves. At this point, its pretty much agreed, that the only use North Korea has for nuclear technology is to blackmail its neighbors, and other nations, into providing concessions and aid to them in exchange for empty promisses. One has to wonder if all the gift packages being made to Iran is sending the proper message to the other rogue nations in the world. I do think that the governments of the word do have a resposibility to its citizens to foster opportunity for all of their citizens and to strive to maintain social balance instead of rifts. Without question there will always be the haves and the have-nots, but I don't think the government should sit idly by as the gap continues to increase. Even in the poorest nations in the world, the aristocrats live in the lap of luxury while their citizens are left to fight for the scraps. I don't agree with this and I am not about to excuse the governments from the responsibiliy in this. Every government is responsible for the well being of ALL of its citizens, if that government is indeed representative of its people.

[ted]

The way I am hearing it, you folks are justifying North Koreas misapropriation of its resources.

Who said anything like that?

The North Korean Government is directly responsible for the condition of it's nation and people.

It's one of the last failed attempts to carry on the old-style communist hard line movement and they won't acknowledge that it has already failed miserably.

What little resources they have is squandered and what little profit they may make selling anything is swallowed by the government. The system cannot go on much longer and they know it.

They have no choice but to fall, whether they fight or not. They used to survive on the hand outs given to them by Russia and China, but those have all but dried up now.

All they have now is the hand outs from the UN, South Korea, and in an indirect way, the US. All of which, by the way, is failing to reach the average citizen.

The regime of Kim, Jong-Il is to blame currrently, but it is a product of his father's failed visions and actions.

They just can't seem to let it go.

t.