North Korea releases pastor amid nuclear ICBM threats

NORTH KOREA: North Korea on Wednesday freed Hyeon Soo Lim, a Korean-Canadian pastor government officials sentenced to life in prison, on “sick bail.” No further details were available. The North Korean government in 2015 charged Lim, who is in his 60s, with crimes against the state, accusing him of using religion to undermine the North Korean system and for helping U.S. and South Korean authorities lure and abduct North Korean citizens. According to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office, a delegation led by National Security Adviser Daniel Jean arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday to discuss Lim’s imprisonment. Lim, who pastored the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto, was on a humanitarian mission when North Korean officials detained him.

“A bomb without a ride to its destination is just a really dangerous paperweight,” and we’re still a ways off from North Korea having the targeting and weapons capability to launch a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile—just not far enough, according to the latest U.S. defense analysis released this week.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge Tuesday to meet Pyongyang’s threats “with fire and fury like the world has never seen” could put in harm’s way millions of people living in Japan and South Korea. While options short of threatening a nuclear confrontation remain on the table, diplomatic maneuvers are disappearing in favor of military steps.

U.S. B-1B bombers were flying missions over Guam this week even before North Korea threatened to launch strikes against the U.S. Pacific territory. A malware campaign targeting North Korea has surged since recent missile launches (and we can hope the Israelis are perhaps behind it). In all of it, South Koreans worry they are being sidelined from their own future.

KENYA: At least three people have died in post-election violence, following opposition candidate Raila Odinga’s claim of “massive fraud” in Tuesday’s vote. At issue: nearly 300,000 votes currently ruled as rejected, a figure likely to come down but what also led to widespread unrest after the 2013 presidential election.

CHINA promises “unavoidable countermeasures” in a border crisis with India that was being negotiated by just hundreds of feet at a time.

ALGERIA: U.S. women activists may be donning hijab to show solidarity with Muslims, but on the Algerian coast they are wearing bikinis to defy hard-line Islamists.

NIGER: Smugglers are using more and more dangerous routes, and the International Office of Migration has launched search-and-rescue teams, saving 1,000 African migrants abandoned in the Sahara since spring.

A helpful think piece on how to approach the global refugee crisis.

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