THE CHURCH MILITANT
Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
Owen Shroyer presents video footage of Rand Paul speaking on the floor
of the house, warning of the massive budget increase our country is
facing, and violent liberals call for him to be assaulted.
BOMBSHELL: DOJ & FBI SPIED ON PRESIDENT TRUMP IN THE WHITE HOUSE
The less highly-redacted version of the criminal referral letter written
by Sen. Charles Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham made public on Tuesday
provides evidence the Department of Justice and FBI were conducting
FISA court-approved electronic surveillance of President Trump in the
White House
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
According to a new report, an FBI informant in the ongoing Uranium
One investigation says that executives for the Russian nuclear company
involved in the deal wired money to the United States to influence
then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the time when she was in a
position to reset relations between the United States and Russia. With
Clinton's approval, that deal transferred at least 20 percent of U.S.
uranium to Russian control. As The Hill reported Wednesday, the informant, Douglas
Campbell, told three separate congressional committees that millions of
dollars were routed to the United States by Moscow. The money —
earmarked to benefit the Clinton Foundation — was intended to influence
Hillary Clinton. The degree to which the payoff was successful can
perhaps best be judged by the fact that Clinton readily approved the
controversial Uranium One deal.
The crux of the issue is the 2010 deal — approved by Secretary Clinton and others — that allowed the sale
of of U.S. uranium mining facilities to Rosatom State Atomic Energy
Corporation, a Russian state-owned company headquartered in Moscow.
While it would be bad enough for Secretary Clinton to have approved a
deal that would strengthen Russia while weakening the United States,
there is more to this scandal than even that. The New York Times reported in 2015 (before Clinton was the Democrat nominee) that more than $40,000,000 in donations were made to the Clinton Foundation in connection with the deal.
Campbell’s newest revelations were delivered in the form of a written
statement to the Senate Judiciary, the House Intelligence, and the
House Oversight and Government Reform committees, which are looking into
the deal, though he was also interviewed in a closed-door session by
members of those committees. According to The Hill, his
statement said that he was told by Russian nuclear executives that
Moscow had hired the American lobbying firm APCO Worldwide specifically
because it was in position to influence the Obama administration, and
more specifically Hillary Clinton.
In one part of the statement, Campbell writes that Russian nuclear
executives told him on more than one occasion that “they expected APCO
to apply a portion of the $3 million annual lobbying fee it was
receiving from the Russians to provide in-kind support for the Clintons'
Global Initiative.” His statement went on to say, “The contract called
for four payments of $750,000 over twelve months. APCO was expected to
give assistance free of charge to the Clinton Global Initiative as part
of their effort to create a favorable environment to ensure the Obama
administration made affirmative decisions on everything from Uranium One
to the U.S.-Russia Civilian Nuclear Cooperation agreement.”
As if on cue, Democrats began a campaign to cast doubt on the
veracity of Campbell’s testimony. Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.),
who is the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was
joined by the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee,
Representative Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), in claiming that in briefing
late last year, DOJ officials told them that had found Campbell
untrustworthy when he worked as an FBI informant.
What Schiff and Cummings did not address is why — if Campbell could
not be trusted — he was rewarded for his work for the FBI in 2016 to the
tune of $50,000.
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said Campbell’s testimony is part of a
“trifecta of GOP-manufactured scandals” designed to distract from the
Trump/Russia collusion investigation. Merrill said:
Just yesterday the committee made clear
that this secret informant charade was just that, a charade. Along with
the widely debunked text-message-gate and Nunes' embarrassing memo
episode, we have a trifecta of GOP-manufactured scandals designed to
distract from their own president's problems and the threat to democracy
he poses.
This sounds familiar. As this writer reported when Campbell first
came forward in November as the “secret witness” in the Senate committee
investigation looking into UranuimGate, Merrill said, “This latest
iteration is simply more of the Right doing Trump’s bidding for him to
distract from his own Russia problems.”
Merrill needs to come up with some new material.
But in that spirit, this writer will simply respond to Merrill’s “new” statement by quoting from that previous article in November — because it’s as applicable now as it was then:
What Merrill, Clinton, and everyone else
on that side of the scandal seems to miss is that Trump doesn’t appear
to have any “Russia problems.” But Clinton, who — as irony would have it
— helped start the whole Russia-as-the-Bogeyman process, does have a
large share of Russia problems. And Uranium One and the Clinton
Foundation are at ground zero of those problems.
And considering the mountain of evidence coming out of the text
messages between FBI agent Peter Stzrok and his mistress/coworker Lisa
Page, and the recent confirmation of the claims of the Republican FISA
memo authored by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes
(R-Calif.), perhaps it would be best for Merrill not to mention those
along with this. Unless he is admitting that Campbell is correct.
The deflection ploy does not appear to be working for Hillary Clinton
this time. Her pay-for-play/UraniumGate scheme that weakened the United
States while simultaneously strengthening our enemies and fattening the
coffers of the Clinton Foundation during her tenure as secretary of
state is already being investigated by at least three congressional
committees, the FBI, and the DOJ.
Before it’s over, Clinton could face criminal charges in one or more of those probes. Because, as Nunes said Monday, there is a “clear link” between Clinton and Russia.
Nunes was speaking of the Clinton campaign and the DNC illegally
funding the spurious Trump “dossier,” which was based on information
that was gathered “from Russian government sources inside Russia,”
according to a recent referral for criminal investigation of the the
document’s author.
As more and more evidence continues to come to light, it is becoming
increasingly apparent that it was Clinton, not Trump, who was “Putin’s
puppet.”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
TOPEKA, Kan. —The new governor of the state of Kansas delivered his first
address to a joint session of the legislature on Wednesday, a speech that
included a declaration that everyone has a God-given right to life.
Jeff Colyer, who previously served as lieutenant governor, was sworn
in as governor on Jan. 31 after Gov. Sam Brownback accepted a position
to serve as the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious
Freedom. Both Colyer and Brownback identify as Roman Catholic and both
have spoken about their pro-life views publicly.
“Kansas was founded on the ideal that all people have value,” Colyer,
a surgeon in Johnson County, told those gathered for the address this
week. “Everyone has a God-given right to life and liberty.”
“And as a doctor, I’ve seen newborn babies who no one gave a chance
thrive. I’ve seen mothers frightened by a scary ultrasound only to
rejoice at their child’s wedding 20 years later,” he noted.
Colyer outlined that Kansas has historically opposed abortion.
“When Kansas first entered the Union, two of our first laws
emphasized basic human dignity. As a free state, Kansas prohibited
slavery, and the same founders whose names appear on these walls, they
passed laws prohibiting abortion,” he explained. “That same constitution
that prohibited slavery did not mention a right to an abortion.”
Colyer consequently lamented a 2016 ruling in which the Kansas Court
of Appeals—in a tie vote—stuck down the state’s ban on dismemberment
abortions, with half finding a right to an abortion in the Kansas
Constitution and the other half opining that there is no such right in
the state’s founding documents.
As previously reported,
SB 95, passed in 2015, banned the common second trimester practice of
“dismembering a living unborn child and extracting such unborn child one
piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping
forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments that, through the
convergence of two rigid levers, slice, crush or grasp a portion of the
unborn child’s body in order to cut or rip it off.”
However, the bill specifically noted that it did not ban “an abortion
which uses suction to dismember the body of the unborn child by sucking
fetal parts into a collection container,” also known as vacuum
aspiration abortions, which are common throughout the first trimester.
Shawnee County District Judge Larry Hendricks placed an injunction on
the dismemberment ban in June 2015, opining that a mother’s
“fundamental right to terminate a pregnancy [would] be unduly burdened”
if the law was allowed to stand. The ruling was appealed, and because
the appeals court ruling was a tie, Hendricks’ ruling was left
undisturbed.
“[A] Kansas court issued a ruling which argues that the framers of
the Kansas Constitution imagined abortion as a separate constitutional
state right. This is violence against the very basic facts, and this
cannot stand,” Colyer declared on Wednesday, drawing a standing ovation
from some in attendance.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the Republicans present stood to their feet in support, while Democrats sat still.
“We are a pro-life state, and on the issue of life, the stakes are so
high. The issue is so foundational. The people of Kansas must have the
final say,” he said. View the speech in full here. Colyer’s remarks on abortion begin at approximately 19:30 into the recording.
The Kansas Supreme Court is currently considering an appeal of the
cited ruling, and lawmakers are also pondering the possibility of
introducing a constitutional amendment should the high court find that
state founders established a right to an abortion.
“A constitutional amendment … would just take this question out of
the hands of unelected judges in the future,” Rep. Chuck Weber,
R-Wichita, told local radio station KCUR. “It would really reflect the
will of the people.” As previously reported,
the state’s ban on dilation and evacuation abortions had
been challenged by abortionist Herbert Hodes and his daughter, Traci
Nauser, who argued that it placed a burden on their “right” to perform
second trimester abortions. In court, the state presented other options
for ending the lives of the unborn.
“The state has offered three alternatives to the standard D & E
procedure: labor-induced abortion, inducing fetal demise with digoxin
injections, and inducing fetal demise by cutting the umbilical cord
(also known as transection),” the appeals court outlined in April 2016.
However, some believe that abortion, like slavery, should be
abolished altogether—just as Christians have declared in America
for more than 200 years.
Philadelphia legal writer, educator and Christian apologist Francis
Wharton penned an entire chapter on abortion in his 1855 book “American
Criminal Law.”
Wharton called abortionists “persons who are ready to degrade their
humanity to this occupation” and stated in regard to abortion in
general, “Such conduct cannot be too strongly condemned, and is the more
deserving of receiving the punishment awarded for the criminal offense
in question.”
In an introductory lecture to his course on obstetrics in 1854, Dr.
Hugh Lennox Hodge likewise explained that if a woman were to come to a
medical doctor in pursuit of an abortion, “he must, as it were, grasp
the conscience of his weak and erring patient and let her know in
language not to be misunderstood that she is responsible to her Creator
for the life of the being within her.”
“The procuring abortion is ‘a base and unmanly act,’” Hodge also
said, quoting in part text from a court ruling of his day. “It is a
crime against the natural feelings of man, against the welfare and
safety of females, against the peace and prosperity of society, against
the divine command ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ It is murder.”
_______________________________________________________
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
“We are excited to expand our services to the communities we serve,”
said Zainab Chaudry, “Maryland outreach manager for CAIR.” The CAIR
office in Catonsville “will be the hub of its work in Maryland.”
Democrat Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz declared that he was
“particularly impressed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations’
mission which emphasizes understanding, compassion and justice for all.” With a world of information at Kamentz’s fingertips, it is difficult
to imagine that he is this clueless. Zainab Chaudry is very happy to
expand CAIR into the center of “far flung areas,” as she calls them, and
for good reason, given CAIR’s real identity and mission. Despite its public presentation of unity and fighting discrimination:
CAIR has strong ties to the terrorist group Hamas….as an
offshoot of the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP)….Former chief of
the FBI’s counter terrorism section, Oliver Revell, called the IAP “a
front organization for Hamas that engages in propaganda for Islamic
militants. CAIR’s head, Nihad Awad asserted at a 1994 meeting at Barry
University, “I am a supporter of the Hamas movement.” Former FBI counter
terrorism chief, Steven Pomerantz, stated publicly that, “CAIR, its
leaders and its activities effectively give aid to international
terrorist groups.
CAIR’s “radical Islamic vision” was revealed in a speech in Fremont,
California, when CAIR’s co-founder and longtime Board chairman, Omar Ahmad, proclaimed:
Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith,
but to become dominant. The Koran…should be the highest authority in
America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.
Even the United Arab Emirates listed CAIR as a terrorist group, “placing it in the company of Al Qaeda, Islamic State and others.” Kevin Kamentz seems to be clueless about all this. He also stated
of the Trump temporary ban on Muslim countries that are jihad hotspots,
countries that were chosen by the previous Obama administration:
President Trump’s executive order imposing a Muslim ban
is an affront to the very values that make us proud to be Americans. Our
Founding Fathers were united in the belief that America’s pluralism
would be its north star….For nearly two hundred and fifty years,
generations of immigrants have arrived on our shores and built the
strongest nation in the world.
Kamenetz is mixed up. The United States — and other Western nations —
once opened its doors to responsible immigration. This was for the
protection of all citizens, including law-abiding immigrants. American
values are also built on battling the anti-pluralistic evils of
supremacism, such as Communism, Nazism and now Islamic supremacism, of
which the armed wing is jihad terrorism. Congrats on the photo op, Mr Kamenetz. Leaders like him are to blame
for the Islamization of the West and the ongoing jihadist threat to
Israel and the rest of the free world. To embrace CAIR and its
affiliates is to embrace Hamas.
“Muslim civil rights group opens Catonsville office”, by Libby Soloman, Baltimore Sun, February 6, 2018:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil
rights and advocacy group, opened an office in Catonsville at the end
of January that will be the hub of its work in Maryland.
“We are excited to expand our services to the communities we serve —
not only to Muslim communities but to any Americans who are targeted by
hate or discrimination,” said Zainab Chaudry, Maryland outreach manager
for CAIR.
Before moving into the office at 6120 Baltimore National Pike, CAIR
ran its Maryland outreach activities from the organization’s Washington
headquarters, Chaudry said. The move will put the council’s office, which employs one staff
member and a host of volunteers, in the center of Maryland, accessible
to people in far-flung areas, she said.
“We wanted the location to be strategically located and accessible to diverse communities across the state,” Chaudry said.
At a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Baltimore County Executive Kamenetz
presented the organization with an executive citation, congratulating it
on the occasion.
“We are very pleased that this national organization selected
Baltimore County for their first local office in Maryland,” Kamenetz
said in an emailed statement. “I am particularly impressed by the
Council on American-Islamic Relations’ mission which emphasizes
understanding, compassion and justice for all.
The office is expected to host media events, training sessions and meetings with partners of the organization.
On Feb. 17, at 10 a.m., the office will host a bystander intervention
“training of trainers,” to teach people how to train someone to
intervene if they see an individual being subjected to a hate crime.
The office will also host client meetings for those who take
advantage of its free legal services, which are offered to those
targeted by hate crimes or subject to employment discrimination, Chaudry
said.
That work, she said, is growing each year, as reported incidents of hate crimes rise.
In 2016, Maryland State Police statistics show that Baltimore County
had 73 reported hate crimes, a jump from the 49 reported the previous
year. In Maryland, only Montgomery County had as many reported
incidents.
“In part, it’s undeniable that the hate we’re seeing has been
emboldened by the rhetoric coming from elected officials and people in
positions of authority,” Chaudry said. “In Maryland, we have not been
immune to the impacts of that.”
The new office will “help push forward the work that needs to be done….
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Around 2,000 demonstrators gathered in the German city of
Cottbus over the weekend to protest mass migration after the city had
seen a rise in violence that often involved migrants
Meanwhile, a counter-march
by “Arab refugees and Germans carrying pro-immigrant and anti-fascism
placards marched in Cottbus to denounce what they say are attempts by
far-right groups to stoke tension in the eastern city after two knife
attacks by Syrian teenagers.” It is now an ingrained habit on the left to blame the “far right” and
the “alt right” as it attempts to minimize the misdeeds of jihadist
thugs. Many areas in Germany are becoming dangerous and no-go zones are
developing, while mass sex attacks by Muslim migrants against women
continue. Despite Germany’s chaos, a leaked document showed that the country plans to take in 300,000 more “refugees” per year, plus 12,000 through chain migration. Now a clash between pro-migrant and anti-migrant camps is building,
with various locations in Germany closing their doors to new arrivals:
Cottbus joined a number of other German towns like
Delmenhorst, Wilhelmshaven, and Salzgitter in Lower Saxony which all
banned new arrivals last year.
Good luck to these towns in their efforts to keep new arrivals out.
“Over 2,000 Germans March Against Mass Migration in City Experiencing Wave of Migrant Crime”, by Chris Tomlinson, Breitbart, February 7, 2018:
Around 2,000 demonstrators gathered in the German city of
Cottbus over the weekend to protest mass migration after the city had
seen a rise in violence that often involved migrants.
The protest, organised by the group Zukunft Heimat or Future Homeland,
saw 2,000 individuals gather to protest the ongoing migrant violence in
the city, Deutsche Welle reports.
Among the protesters were everyday Germans, young and old, along with right-wing activists. One of the most famous faces at the event was Dresden-based
anti-Islamisation movement PEGIDA founder Lutz Bachmann who gave a
speech to the crowd. Anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD)
politician Daniel Freiherr von Lutzow was also present but did not
speak.
A smaller group of counter-demonstrators, estimated to comprise of
around 600 individuals, was also present at the event but was
outnumbered by the anti-mass migration crowd.
The protests come after a series of high-profile violent clashes in
the city between locals and migrants. In one case, a Syrian migrant
became the first person to be banned from the city after he pulled out a
knife on a young local couple. Shortly after announcing the ban, the city government released a
statement indicating that the city would not be taking in any new asylum
seekers. Cottbus joined a number of other German towns like
Delmenhorst, Wilhelmshaven, and Salzgitter in Lower Saxony which all
banned new arrivals last year.
The city is not the only city in Germany dealing with an explosion of
crime in which migrants are often suspects. In the German capital of
Berlin, the Alexanderplatz area has been turned into what some are
calling a no-go zone due to the influx of asylum seeker drug dealers and
petty thieves…..
The first in our three-part series in - where we document the resistance
coming from ordinary Germans who are fed up with what's been happening
to their country.
We started out in Cottbus, where we heard about the fatal stabbing of a
15 year old girl called Mia in Kandel, by a 'child' migrant who was
taken in and looked after 'like a son' by her parents.
We also heard about a young boy who was stabbed in the face when trying
to protect his girlfriend from a Syrian migrant who was groping her as
they walked through a local park.
Keep your eyes on Germany, 2018 is the year when German women will lead
the way to speak out against the horrific crimes taking place across
Europe thanks to undocumented, mass migration.
TOMMY ROBINSON IN GERMANY WITH
PEGIDA LEADER LUTZ BACHMAN
Tommy Robinson In Germany Attending Anti-Islam Events
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
When is Macy’s launching its clothing line geared toward Jews? Christians? Hindus? Buddhists?
In any case, coming at a time when Iranian women are risking years in prison for daring to take off their hijabs,
for Macy’s to celebrate this emblem of oppression is grotesque. Untold
numbers of women have been brutalized and killed for not wearing the
hijab: a very small and partial list of some of them can be found here.
In recognition of that fact, Macy’s should drop this clothing line,
just as it would drop a clothing line inspired by, say, the KKK or the
Nazis. But it won’t.
“Macy’s to launch a clothing line geared toward Muslims,” Associated Press, February 7, 2018 (thanks to Joe):
NEW YORK (AP) – Macy’s is launching a women’s clothing
line aimed at Muslim shoppers. The department store chain says it teamed
up with a boutique called Verona Collection and plans to sell the
collection of modest dresses, tops, cardigans and hijabs online. The
clothing will launch on Macy’s website on Feb. 15.
The brand was developed by Lisa Vogl, a graduate of Macy’s minority-
and women-owned business development program, which aims to offer more
fashion diversity.
While Macy’s is the first major U.S. department store to sell hijabs, it joins other brands offering products aimed at Muslims….
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The University of Central Oklahoma has opened its
arms to drag queen shows and safe sex carnivals but they draw the line
at Christians who believe God created the Heavens and the Earth in six days.
Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis and
founder of the popular Creation Museum and Ark Encounter, was
disinvited from speaking on the public university campus after an ugly
campaign of bullying by LGBT activists. The Todd Starnes Radio Show obtained exclusive emails between the UCO Student Association and Answers in Genesis explaining why they had to rescind the invitation and opt out of a signed and legally binding contract.
“We are currently getting bombarded with complaints from our LGBT
community about Ken Ham speaking on our campus,” student body president
Stockton Duvall wrote on Jan 25. “I was going to request that Mr. Ham
refrains from talking on this issue, even if asked his views during the
Q&A.”
Ham was scheduled to deliver his remarks on March 5 in the university’s Constitution Hall.
“I find it highly ironic that after being booked to speak in the
school’s Constitution Hall, our constitutional right to free speech and
the exercise of religion, guaranteed under the First Amendment, have
been denied,” Ham said.
“While I know this looks awful censoring certain parts of Mr. Ham’s
views, I want to ensure that we stay on topic of the research Mr. Ham
and his team have done over creationism,” Duvall wrote. For the record, Ham’s university lecture was titled, “Genesis and the State of the Culture.” Paul Blair, the pastor of a local church that sponsors a student
ministry called “Valid Worldview,” told me Ham’s speech had nothing to
do with LGBT issues.
“The backlash we are already receiving is quite immense and I do not
want this event to be spoiled due to a topic that isn’t relative to Mr.
Ham’s research of creationism,” Duvall wrote.
On Jan. 27, the university’s student government group canceled the speaking engagement.
“A small but vocal group on campus put up a fuss about my talk and
the university caved in, tearing up the contract and contradicting its
policies of promoting ‘free inquiry’ and ‘inclusiveness’ on campus,” Ham
said. Pastor Blair told me he does not fault the student government association president for caving in to the LGBT mob. “I think this young man was bullied and intimidated,” Blair said. “I
think he succumbed to the bullying that these LGBTQ groups are known
for. Those that scream out and demand tolerance are in actuality the
least tolerant group of individuals on the planet.” A university spokesman told me there had been no complaints of LGBT bullying.
“The UCO community is an inclusive environment that encourages the
civil expression of diverse thoughts and ideas, while also keeping the
safety of our students a top priority,” the spokesman said.
Blair, the pastor of Fairview Baptist Church, pointed out the
university’s blatant hypocrisy and what he called “the obvious
discrimination against Christianity on campus.”
“I am beside myself with frustration that our tax dollars go to
promote a drag queen show and safe sex events with carnival games that
are obscene and graphic,” he said. “Yet when it comes to something like
debating Darwinian evolution or talking about the literal Creation
account of Genesis – well that kind of speech must be censored.”
The pastor has a valid point.
If the University of Central Oklahoma expects Christian students to
be tolerant of LGBT-themed events, why aren’t they demanding that same
expectation from LGBT students when it comes to Christian events? Read more
at http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/02/07/sex-carnivals-drag-queens-are-welcome-ken-ham-and-other-creationists-are-not-university-says.html
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
North Korea showcased its latest missiles in a large military parade Thursday
on the eve of the Winter Olympics in South Korea.
Held at Kim Il Sung Square in the capital city of Pyongyang, the
parade included hundreds of soldiers and an assortment of military
hardware.
The event, attended by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife
Ri Sol Ju, who arrived together by limousine, marks the day Kim Il Sung
established the Korean People’s Army. During a rare speech, Kim lambasted the United States and boasted of
North Korea’s development into “a world-class military power.” “As long as imperialism is present on the Earth and US’s hostile
policy against North Korea continues, the mission of the Korea People’s
Army to be the strong sword that protects the country and people, and
peace can never change,” Kim said.
The North Korean leader also called for his military to remain combat
ready in order to keep the United States from infringing upon “the
republic’s sacred dignity and autonomy even by 0.001 millimeters.”
“The final victory lies to our party and people who is holding the gunstocks of revolution,” Kim said. Following Kim’s address, numerous missiles were brought out including
the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), believed to
be capable of reaching any target on the U.S. mainland. Several Hwasong-14 ICBMs, Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic
missiles (IRBMs) and Pukgukgsong-2 solid-fuelled IRBMs were also
observed.
No new weapons were revealed during the event and some experts
believe the parade, noticeably smaller than last year’s, was designed to
not provoke ahead of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchan, South Korea.
“They wanted to keep a low profile (so as) not to aggravate the current situation,” a witness to the parade told NK News. “Some Chinese tourists said the DPRK doesn’t want to cause trouble before the Olympics.”
While U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who will lead the U.S.
delegation to the Olympics’ opening ceremony Friday, hinted during a press conference
in Japan Wednesday that the U.S. was not opposed to meeting with North
Korean officials during the games, Pyongyang stated Thursday that it was
uninterested.
“We have no intention to meet with the U.S. side during the stay in
South Korea,” a top Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying. “We
are not going to use such a sports festival as the Winter Olympics as a
political lever. There is no need to do so.”
Pence also announced during the Tokyo press conference that the U.S.
was preparing to unveil the “most aggressive” sanctions ever against
North Korea.
“I’m announcing today that the United States of America will soon
unveil the toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on
North Korea ever,” Pence said. “We will continue to isolate North Korea
until it abandons its nuclear and ballistic missile program once and for
all.”
On Wednesday North Korea accused U.S. President Donald Trump of being
“dolt-like” for planning a potential “bloody nose” strike against
Pyongyang.
The commentary appeared to be in response to Trump’s State of the
Union address in which he chastised “the cruel dictatorship in North
Korea.”
“North Korea’s reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon
threaten our homeland. We need only look at the depraved character of
the North Korean regime to understand the nature of the nuclear threat
it could pose to America and to our allies,” Trump said.
_______________________________________________________
North Korea Holds Military Parade Ahead Of Olympics Opening Ceremony | NBC Nightly News
Published on Feb 8, 2018
Kim
Jong Un is utilizing a strategy of both diplomacy and force, as the
annual military parade was moved up to coincide with the Olympics and
his sister Kim Yo Jong is in PyeongChang for the games.
N. Korea showcases missiles, jets at military parade marking Army's 70th anniversary
North Korea held a massive military parade highlighted by
intercontinental ballistic missiles in its capital on Thursday, just one
day before South Korea hosts the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang
Winter Olympics. Kim Jong-un was shown walking on a red carpet with his
wife at the beginning of the event.
North Korea has staged a huge parade to mark the 60th anniversary of the
armistice that ended the Korean War. Soldiers and military hardware
paraded through Pyongyang in a carefully choreographed display. The
1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, although the North and South remain
technically at war.
