N.KOREAN UPDATE: 3.25.17 - North Korea Is a Ticking Time Bomb

North Korea Is a Ticking Time Bomb - Todd Strandberg - http://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/

 

North Korea has been a problem nation since day one. It is a product of the Cold War. After Japan was defeated in World War II, the Soviet Union and the U.S. split up Korea on the 38th parallel.

 

The willingness of the Communist Bloc to support any nation that would hold high the Marxist banner resulted in one of the worst dictatorship's on the planet. The government is based on an elaborate cult of personality-around Kim Il-sung and his family. All households are required to have a photo of the "Great Leader" on their wall. Anyone who makes even the most casual negative remark about the government can result in being sent to a death camp.

 

Kim Jong Un is the third descendant of this dynasty; he is a joke of a leader. He was made commander of the army despite the fact he doesn't have any military experience. Kim Jong Un looks like a clown, with his Dr. Evil suits, his high cut hair and lumbering weight. The Chinese press has focused on how odd it is to have a fat guy running a nation where millions constantly face starvation.

 

All this nuttiness would be entertaining for us in the West if North Korea was not one of the most heavily armed nations on earth. It is the country with the highest number of military and paramilitary personnel (a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel). Its active duty army of 1.21 million is the fourth largest in the world.

 

North Korea has become even more dangerous by its nuclear program. The nation's first atomic bomb was too heavy to fit onto a missile and on a jet. After years of development, they appear to now have a nuke that could fit for a short range mission.

 

With North Korea's ingenuity, they will soon have an atomic missile that can reach Hawaii or the West Coast of North America.

 

Kim Jong Un has boasted that North Korea has enough plutonium to make 10 nuclear warheads and the ability to launch ballistic missiles at least 600 miles. North Korea is working on building hydrogen bombs. They have made two underground tests that show how they are making continuous progress in achieving this goal.

 

If there is any doubt we are dealing with evil people, the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's half brother, Kim Jong Nam, should show the ruthlessness of the Pyongyang leadership. Kim Jong Nam was walking through a Malaysian airport when two women walked up to him and touched him on the face with two clothes. Both of them produced the banned VX nerve agent; which killed the brother within two minutes.

 

The North Korea media constantly put out saber-rattling statements that warn of how ready they are for war. The propaganda press agency KCNA issued this statement attributed to Kim:  "If they [The U.S.] infringe on the DPRK's sovereignty and dignity even a bit, its army will launch merciless ultra-precision strikes from ground, air, sea and underwater."

 

The average North Korean is constantly being told to prepare for warfare. This past week Kim Jong Un gave orders that every soldier-even if away on business, on leave, off-base for training, or even those with a recent death in the family must return to their units. The authorities have ordered the military police in each region to summon all soldiers back to their bases.

 

This constant high level of tension will eventually produce a miscalculation on someone's part. Once a mistake is made, the consequences will be very high. The North Koreans have thousands of missiles aimed at the south. Seoul, the capital of South Korea, is only about 20 miles from the border.

 

The day will eventually come where North Korea will be able to strike downtown Los Angeles with an H-bomb. Our leaders may come to regret not acting when Pyongyang only had conventional weapons. China should be the one with the greatest remorse. It foolishly supported North Korea for decades. Now that South Korea has decided to install a THAD missile defense system, the Chinese are starting to realize the mess they've allowed to fester right on their doorstep.

 

By now, a war between the West and North Korea should have started a dozen times. I think God is holding things back because now is the time of "peace and safety" (1 Thessalonians 5:3). As we reach the Tribulation hour, situations like North Korea  will likely continue to get worse and worse.

 

"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (2 Timothy 3:13).

Iran-North Korea Nuclear Cooperation - By Barney Breen-Portnoy - http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1105

 

Paying attention to any potential nuclear cooperation between Iran and North Korea should be a priority for the Trump administration, a proliferation expert told The Algemeiner on Thursday.

 

"I think the main thing is to try to discover it," David Albright -- head of the Institute for Science and International Security think tank -- said. "We know it [cooperation] happens in the missile and conventional weapons areas. As for the nuclear area, we look at it as an open question. 

 

We haven't seen enough evidence yet to make an actual accusation, we just don't know. But I think there is a real risk that Iran and North Korea could cooperate on nuclear matters. It requires a lot of attention from our intelligence services."

 

"If it turns out such cooperation does exist, an argument could be made that it's a violation of the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]," Albright went on to say. 

 

"Whether it in fact is or not, lawyers would have to decide. It would depend on the exact type of cooperation. But the bottom line is you have to develop more resources to try to figure if it's going on. And a revelation that it is going on would be quite damaging to Iran."

 

There are two types of know-how Iran and North Korea could share, Albright said. 

 

The first, he noted is "more traditional information about building nuclear weapons and testing nuclear weapons, which North Korea certainly has plenty of to give to Iran." And the second is "reentry vehicle technology for a nuclear warhead."

 

"Iran is freer to conduct reentry vehicle tests than North Korea," Albright explained. "So both could benefit. 

 

It would look like missile cooperation, which is more tolerated, but in fact it could end up being a way to help both countries be able to mount a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile."

 

In a recently published paper, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies analysts Refael Ofek and Dany Shoham claimed that Iran was "steadily making progress towards a nuclear weapon" with help from North Korea.

 

The Pyongyang regime, they wrote, was "ready and able" to give the Islamic Republic a "clandestine means of circumventing" the July 2015 nuclear deal it agreed to with six world powers.

 

"At the same time," they added, "Iran is likely assisting in the upgrading of certain North Korean strategic capacities."

 

Anthony Ruggiero -- a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank -- noted in a policy brief on Wednesday, "What happens in North Korea rarely stays there, and Pyongyang has likely proliferated nuclear technology in secret to at least two countries: Syria and Libya. 

 

Likewise, a North Korea-Iran nuclear relationship would be difficult to detect. And while North Korea will not sell complete nuclear weapons or fissile material for nuclear weapons -- as these are critical to the regime's survival -- it will sell other parts of its program, as well as its expertise."

 

"Perhaps most disconcerting, there are no international mechanisms to detect scientific activity inside North Korea," he continued. 

 

"The hermit kingdom controls information flow, especially on its strategic programs, and IAEA inspectors are not permitted access to its nuclear program."

 

"For over 20 years, the US has failed to counter North Korea's growing nuclear and ballistic missile threat. Pyongyang-Tehran nuclear cooperation would be cause for even greater alarm," Ruggiero concluded.