(3)May week5 Prayer for North Korea (북한기도 영문)
2024-06-03 09:57:15
May week5 Prayer for North Korea
1. Kim Jong-un's Portrait Displayed Alongside Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il: Idolization Intensifies
▶ ▶ Article Summary:
The North Korean media has captured images of Kim Jong-un's portrait displayed alongside those of previous leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, suggesting that North Korea is intensifying the idolization of Kim Jong-un. On the 21st, Kim Jong-un attended the completion ceremony of the Labor Party Central Cadre School in the Kumsusan area of Pyongyang. Photos from this event show Kim Jong-un's portrait placed alongside those of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il on the exterior wall of the school's revolutionary history hall. Inside the classrooms, the portraits of the three Kims were also prominently displayed above the blackboards. These photos were simultaneously released through the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) for international audiences and the Rodong Sinmun, the Labor Party's newspaper, which is widely read by all North Korean residents. Opposite the revolutionary history hall, large portraits of Marx and Lenin, foundational thinkers of socialist theory, were displayed, positioned to face the portraits of the Kims. Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies, analyzed this arrangement, stating that Kim Il-sung’s Juche ideology, developed from Marxism-Leninism, has evolved into Kim Jong-il’s Songun (military-first) ideology, and with the impending fourth generational succession, North Korea aims to establish 'Kim Jong-un-ism.' However, he noted that North Korea might face challenges since Marxism-Leninism opposes individualism, idolization, and hereditary succession. Since 2022, North Korea has been installing mosaic murals of Kim Jong-un in various places as part of the idolization process.
[Read more: https://url.kr/7z5gmu ]
▶ ▶ Prayer Points:
"I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols." (Isaiah 42:8)
ￏ Lord, grant grace to the churches in both North and South Korea to tear their hearts before You and thoroughly repent for the sin of idolizing the Kim family among North Korean people. Allow us to turn completely to You so that, by Your mercy, this land may be healed.
ￏ North Korea is accelerating the idolization process by placing Kim Jong-un’s portraits alongside those of his predecessors, following the installation of his mosaic murals. Lord, we pray for the swift end of the Kim Il-sung Juche ideology, the three-generation hereditary dictatorship, and the deification and idolization of the Kim family. Let the approximately 40,000 statues of the Kim family and the portraits displayed in public institutions and homes across North Korea be removed.
ￏ May Pyongyang, once called the Jerusalem of the East, and the entire North Korean territory reveal Your glory once again. We pray for the swift realization of the Gospel-based unification of North and South Korea, prepared by the Lord, so that North Koreans may freely believe in Jesus, worship, and enjoy the blessings of evangelism and missions.
2. Families of Abducted South Korean High School Students Plead, "Let Us See Their Faces"
▶ ▶ Article Summary:
The Ministry of Unification has erected a monument on Hongdo and Seonyudo, the sites where high school students were abducted over 40 years ago, urging for their return. Among the victims—Kim Young-nam, Lee Min-gyo, Choi Seung-min, Lee Myung-woo, and Hong Gun-pyo—only Kim Young-nam has been able to meet his family during a family reunion event in 2006. The families of the abductees are appealing for at least a glimpse of their faces. In a commemorative address, Special Envoy Turner emphasized the need for the immediate reunion of 516 post-war abductees, wartime abductees, detainees, and unreturned prisoners of war with their families, pledging efforts to resolve the issue. Minister of Unification Kim Young-ho highlighted that the abduction of these individuals, who were children at the time under international law, constitutes a violation of children's rights. He urged North Korea, as a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to return all five high school students and take a progressive approach to resolving the abduction issue. Additionally, he emphasized that North Korea's abductions and detentions are an international human rights issue affecting victims from multiple countries, including South Korea and Japan, and called for the international community to unite in addressing this issue and holding North Korea accountable. Lee Shin-hwa, the Foreign Ministry's Ambassador for North Korean Human Rights, urged North Korea to be held accountable and to at least allow contact between the abductees and their families. Choi Sung-yong, Chairman of the Korean War Abductees' Family Union, also appealed to North Korea to permit the surviving mothers to meet their sons, even unofficially.
[Read more: https://url.kr/1qowfi ]
▶ ▶ Prayer Points:
"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute." (Proverbs 31:8)
ￏ May the five high school students abducted 40 years ago—Kim Young-nam, Lee Min-gyo, Choi Seung-min, Lee Myung-woo, and Hong Gun-pyo—soon reunite with their families in South Korea, and may their safe return be ensured. Please protect the lives and health of the post-war abductees, wartime abductees, unreturned prisoners of war and their descendants, as well as the South Korean missionaries currently detained, and bring them all back swiftly to their eagerly waiting families in free South Korea.
ￏ Let the international community unite in holding North Korea accountable for its inhumane abductions and detentions, and may North Korea show a change in attitude by actively engaging in resolving the abduction issue.
3. North Korean Residents, Families Broken by Food Crisis, Survive as 'Volunteers for Hazardous Labor'
▶ ▶ Article Summary:
In recent years, North Korean authorities have heavily promoted young people volunteering in difficult and demanding sectors. However, a source from Yanggang Province reported that many of these volunteers are individuals whose families have already disintegrated due to food shortages and who have nowhere else to go. These people have no choice but to volunteer to survive. For example, Park Kyung-soo, a welder with two young daughters, lived a relatively stable life until 2019, when his wife, who sold car tires, died of tuberculosis. After her death, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, Park had to place his children in an orphanage and begin working in a mine as a volunteer to survive. This year, out of 47 volunteers from Yanggang Province, 20 were graduates of orphanages, and 17 were individuals like Park, whose families had broken apart due to food shortages. The source explained that being able to volunteer is considered fortunate, as many young people suffer from malnutrition and are unable to work, thus not even making it onto the volunteer list. Volunteers range in age from 17 to 35 years old.
[Read more: https://url.kr/mljsdn ]
▶ ▶ Prayer Points:
"Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." (Psalm 82:4)
ￏ Recently, in North Korea, individuals from orphanages and those whose families have disintegrated due to food shortages are being forced to volunteer for demanding labor sectors recruited by the authorities. Even then, those suffering from malnutrition cannot participate. Lord, have mercy on North Korean residents experiencing extreme food shortages, family breakdowns, and malnutrition without any social safety nets.
ￏ God of justice, let the Kim Jong-un regime, which prioritizes regime maintenance through astronomical expenditures on nuclear missile development while neglecting the lives, health, and welfare of its residents, come to an end quickly. Establish leaders and governments in North Korea that guarantee residents' freedom and human rights and prioritize their food, clothing, shelter, and livelihood.
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