I hear rumors that things are getting better. Things are opening up. The government is changing. Korea is changing. Then I open up to my own website, and read the news. And it's back to praying, OH GOD! WHAT CAN YOUR PEOPLE DO?!

Like this article yesterday from the Associated Press, Kwang-Tae Kim. Says that frequent public executions have returned. The Communists are shooting people for sport again. Like this guy who was the head of a factory in South Pyongan Province. He had the gall to install 13 phones in the basement. He even USED the phones for international calls. Oh my, what a crime! Executed by a firing squad in a stadium with 150,000 people watching.

And while they exited the edifice, six more were killed in an apparent stampede. Sounds like one of our rock concerts. But in Korea the event that draws the crowd is a shooting.

This report comes from the "Good Friends" Aid Agency.

But certainly the North Koreans are not a violent people. Certainly their government would not be guilty of such atrocities. Their media stoutly denies reports like those of "Good Friends." But the same media, on the same day as the above story, published a vicious attack on one Ri Hoe Chang of South Korea. Now this guy isn't all that popular in the South, but he is running for President on a platform that threatens NK in some way. Understood. But is this how to address all those with whom we disagree?

You be the judge as to what the government of NK would do with this South Korean if they met him in a dark alley. Or kidnapped him and took him to that dark alley, which is more in line with their method. I quote highlights from this KCNA article which offers the words of a spokesman for the "Committee for the PEACEFUL Reunification of the Fatherland" (!):

"The south Koreans should decisively eliminate [whoa!] such traitor to the nation and war maniac Ri Hoe Chang so that he may not raise his head again." [in lay terms that means KILL HIM]

"[Chang is a] wicked anti-reunification traitor and anti-DPRK confrontational maniac [you already used that word] ..."

"He is so wicked a traitor and charlatan...[who wants] to gratify his dirty political ambition."

[and the unkindest cut of all: he is a ]"pro-U.S. ultra-right conservative... and a vicious advocate of showdown..."

If he becomes President, "the divided Korean nation will suffer a disaster of another war."

So kill him, South Korea. Eliminate him. That's how we solve our problems up here. Give it a try.

So whether Kim and company are killing telephone users or verbally slaying politicians, it seems clear to me that our enemy remains basically the same and should not be taken seriously at any bargaining table.

It seems equally clear that Christians will have to "pray the price" if this saga is going to have a turn for the better.