The big news in North Korea these days is the collapse of a large,new, 23 story apartment building housing many families of the elite and the leadership. It is feared that hundreds have died. Kim Jong Un was caught off guard and shown in the official press to be enjoying himself at a football match a couple days later but the coverage quickly changed to portray him as deeply distraught over the tragedy spending sleepless nights in grief.    It is highly unusual that North Korea would acknowledge such a disaster but the high profile of those affected and strong protests that were made required some sort of official response. The North quickly sought out scape-goats to sacrifice and executed several officials blaming them for the catastrophe. However, this is exactly what many have feared as Kim Jong Un has been pushing for more construction at increased speed drafting students and soldiers to do the work.  Personally, I was not surprised being aware of the strong emphasis on external appearance with little regard for what is under the facade.  When I was working in the North there were buildings that I was afraid to enter knowing how they had been built.  
North Korea continues to crack down on anything that exposes its citizens to outside influence recently adding a number of clauses to the criminal code requiring harsh punishment including execution for such things as viewing South Korean videos, calling people in the South by cell phone and other similar activities. This article lists the new laws and some of the punishments mandated.  A man was recently executed as an example and some 100 Pyongyang citizens have been sent into internal exile.  At the same time the State Security Department has shifted tactics from belligerence to sweet talk to get people to come back from China who have overstayed their permitted time but not many people are believing it.
On the international front, while Russia seems to be reassessing their relationship to NK in a positive light, NK's staunchest ally, China, is expressing anger and seems to be putting some distance between themselves and the North over the nuclear issue.  In relation to South Korea, there has been an exchange of artillery fire at sea and scathing comments in the press--a not uncommon occurrence.  Even so, the North has just announced that they plan to send a team to the Asian Games coming up in Inchon, South Korea in September.  We hope that this will be an opportunity to tone down the rhetoric and re-open avenues of peaceful communication.
We have a bit of hopeful news concerning Ken Bae for whom we continue to pray. A group of Asian American leaders meeting in Washington in May were able to make an appeal to the White House for the US Government to get more fully involved in seeking the release of this US Citizen who has been held in prison in North Korea for 18 months now--by far the longest period of time for any American since the Korean War.  His sister was with the group and reported that while they have grave concerns for his health, especially under the sentence of hard labor, he is allowed to have his Bible. He has read it 9 times so far during his incarceration. Ben Torrey <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>