North Korea has developed an almost predictable pattern of engaging in acts that seem suggestive of desiring a military confrontation. They throw a fit over something such as joint military exercises between the US and South Korea, and then the Obama administration responds with some sort of appeasement that leaves them better off. Perhaps this is out of fear of sparking a regional war, something which the US’s largest creditor, China, seems to have confirmed lately as it stands behind its North Korean ally. North Korea’s declaration of a “sacred war” over the summer may have also fed into that.
The popular propaganda in North Korean state mythology insisting that Kim Jong-un somehow has supernatural abilities certainly adds to the line of thought that North Korean leadership is insane. According to www.san-shin.org, the general idea forced upon the people would be that his alleged superpowers were acquired because he was born on Mount Baekdusan, a sacred place in Korean folklore.
It was suggested by a www.forbes.com article on Tuesday that the appearance of insanity is part of North Korea’s warfare strategy: “What is surprising is not North Korea’s actions but that the West and South Korea were so ill-prepared and don’t seem to understand the logic behind the North’s attacks. The attacks are not the actions of an insane regime. They are coolly calculated measures to gain power. If North Korea didn’t attack and appear crazy, no one would care about it, and it would become forgotten, similar to smaller countries like Laos. Instead Kim Jong Il plays the part of the loose cannon and thereby gains attention and clout for his country, pressures China to give more aid, and even gets visits from former American presidents like Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, all of which makes him appear more powerful to North Korean citizens.”.
Interestingly, a similar strategy is mentioned in 1 Samuel chapter 21 verses 10-15 during the days when David was fleeing from King Saul. While David didn’t profess to have supernatural abilities, he did act as though he had lost his mind to escape being captured and perhaps killed when he was in a potentially nasty situation upon fleeing to the kingdom of Gath. It worked in that he remained free and escaped with his life. From the perspective of getting desirable results, North Korea’s strategy of insanity also seems to be working.
The Forbes article goes on to note that, “North Koreans have proven to be wily tacticians, able to amplify their power by acting psychotic. The regime’s actions follow a long-used playbook of leveraging fear and uncertainty to gain power…For instance, the North’s sinking of the South’s warship the Cheonan earlier this year served to heighten anxieties in the South, just as did its issuance of threats immediately after former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide last year. Since Seoul, one of the world’s densest cities, is within North Korean artillery range, at only 31 miles from the border, the South is scared to react with military power.”
An RT.com video has indicated that WikiLeaks revealed that China is ready to see the Koreas unified. But for a country that has been so deeply concerned about having a buffer zone between it and US influenced South Korea, it seems likely that if China wants them unified, it’s so it can take over both. China has been propping up the economy of North Korea, a country far more concerned withtheir military might than their country’s sustainability.
In addition, North Korea apparently has more friends in low places than anyone realizes. A reminder here that back in May, this Examiner mentioned that NorthKorea has not only found a way around sanctions, but it is involved in nuclear activities with Iran, Syria and Myanmar. And those are just the countries that the UN knows about. According to a www.foxnews.com report in May, A seven-member UN panel who had been monitoring the enforcement of the sanctions program wrote a report detailing the activities, and the report was supposed to be discussed among representatives from the US, Britain, Japan, France, South Korea, Russia, and China — North Korea’s main ally.
The report stated that North Korea is apparently getting around the sanctions by using “a number of masking techniques” which include falsely labeling and describing items in shipping containers, creating a manifest with untruthful information, deceptive destination details, and “use of multiple layers of intermediaries, shell companies, and financial institutions.”
North Korea has promised to meet “confrontation with confrontation’ and war with “all-out war,” according to www.cnn.com While some have speculated in the past that their military equipment isn’t as advanced as South Korea’s and certainly not as advanced as that of the US, the above mentioned panel of representatives has also acknowledged that North Korea is well connected with “overseas criminal networks” who could potentially supply it with whatever it needs to develop weapons of mass destruction. In addition, North Korea’s cyber attack on the US last year on the 4th of July did damage that can’t be ignored, which is likely why the US military appointed its first senior general to direct cyber warfareon May 25th: General Keith Alexander.
A www.timesonline.co.uk/ article in May indicated that Syrian President Bashar Assad is a supporter of Iran and Hezbollah, and that satellite images show that Syria has military bases that Hezbollah is operating. Since Hezbollah hates the US and its allies almost as much as it hates Israel, it is believable that Hezbollah could be assisting North Korea with obtaining military related items.
Speaking of warfare, the fact that www.chinadaily.com.cn/ reported on Thanksgiving day that China and Russia have agreed to stop using the dollar for bilateral trade and use their own currencies instead suggests a bit of economic warfare may be going on against the US, though it has been more widely suggested that they are simply concerned about the future of the dollar. Nevertheless, a confederacy or alliance between countries such as China, Russia Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and perhaps a few others in that section of the world could potentially total the military of 200 million mentioned in Revelation chapter 9 verses13-21. Though certain members of the UN apparently want to deceive themselves into believing that sanctions work, there is ample evidence illustrating that they aren’t working in relation to world peace. The most blatant piece of evidence that supports this is that North Korea has figured out a way to get around them and is likely being assisted by other nations and groups who couldn’t care less about international law, and whose concept of world peace is a dictatorship. Now it stands to reason that if North Korea has figured out a way around sanctions, so has Iran, another country with a dangerous, rogue leader. And if Iran has figured this out, there are others.
That being said, it certainly appears that the stage of the theater is being set for a major war that could take place in the near future – one which should be a cue trumpeting to the people of The One True God to look up, because our redemption (our Savior) continues to draw near.
