Olive branch or booby trap? North Korea’s new tone divides analysts

January 7, 2018 — SpaceDaily.com reports: “North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un could be laying a trap for the US and the South with his apparent olive branches towards Seoul, analysts say, warning that Pyongyang’s ultimate goal is to divide their 70-year alliance.

After months of high tensions over the North’s weapons ambitions — last year it launched missiles capable of reaching the US mainland and carried out its most powerful nuclear test to date, proclaiming it a hydrogen bomb — events have moved quickly in recent days.

In his New Year speech, Kim said the country had completed its nuclear deterrent — Pyongyang says it needs to defend itself against a US invasions — and he had a ‘nuclear button on my desk’.

At the same time he made overtures to Seoul, saying Pyongyang could send athletes to the Winter Olympics the South is hosting next month and expressing a willingness to discuss the issue.

It was a 180-degree turnaround for the North, which has long ignored South Korean President Moon Jae-In’s efforts to engage it.

Since then the two sides have reopened a communications hotline and agreed to talks next week at Panmunjom, in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula, while Washington has agreed to a request by Seoul to postpone joint military drills that always infuriate Pyongyang until after the Olympics and Paralympics.

Unusually, Pyongyang — whose propaganda can be colourfully aggressive, sometimes threatening to turn Seoul into a ‘sea of fire’ — has referred to Moon as ‘president’, and asserted Kim’s desire for improved North-South relations.

Sceptics say Kim is trying to drive a wedge between the allies — the US has 28,500 troops stationed in the South to defend it from the North — at a time when the international community should remain united in putting pressure and sanctions on the North over its weapons programmes…”  (North Korea marches with Russia and China for the war of the latter years and latter days – Ezekiel 38:8, 16.  Atomic bombs will produce global incineration – Psalms 97:3; Isaiah 66:15; Joel 2:3, 30; Zephaniah 1:18; Malachi 4:1; Revelation 8:7 and 9:18.)

Report: U.S. Military Training for Ground Invasion to Capture North Korean Nukes

December 23, 2017 — Breitbart.com reports: “U.S. military forces reportedly began training for a mission involving a ground invasion of North Korea, with the objective of deactivating all their nuclear weapons.

According to military sources who spoke to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, hundreds of U.S. and South Korean soldiers conducted an exercise dubbed ‘Warrior Strike,’ preparing them to ‘infiltrate North Korea and remove weapons of mass destruction in case of conflict.’

Photos published on the unit’s Facebook page show armed soldiers training with night vision equipment, gas masks, helicopters and expensive weaponry.

‘On December 15, 2017, Bravo Company, 1-5 CAV converged on a subterranean tunnel for training,’ a description of the post reads. ‘Check out these photos and stay tuned for more coverage of BlackJack soldiers in action.’

The exercises concur with a recent analysis by the Pentagon that determined a ground invasion of North Korea would be the ‘only way’ to fully disarm the country of its nuclear arsenal.

‘The only way to ‘locate and destroy—with complete certainty—all components of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs’ is through a ground invasion,’ wrote Rear Admiral Michael Dumont on behalf of the Pentagon Chiefs of Staff…”  (China and North Korea are prophesied to be top contenders and bloody warriors during the battle of Armageddon – Revelation 16:16. Revelation 16:12 pictures Kings coming to the Middle East, primarily China and North Korea to slay a third-part of mankind in atomic warfare. Revelation 9:14 – 18 the Oriental nations from the East join with Russia – the leader from the North – Daniel 11:44 – for the most horrendous war in history. See the next report.)

U.S. closer to ‘nuclear war with North Korea’ than ever before: Former Joint Chiefs head

December 31, 2017 — ABC News reports: “The United States faces a greater threat of nuclear conflict on the Korean peninsula than at any previous time, said a former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under both presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

‘We’re actually closer in my view, to a nuclear war with North Korea and in that region than we have ever been,’ Ret. Navy Adm. Michael Mullen told ABC News ‘This Week’ co-anchor Martha Raddatz in an interview Sunday. ‘I don’t see the opportunities to solve this diplomatically at this particular point.’

Mullen, who chaired the Joint Chiefs from 2007 to 2011, said President Donald Trump has succeeded in getting China to take a more active role in trying to restrain North Korea’s nuclear activities.

‘I think President Trump has made China move more than they have in the past. Whether they continue to do that to help resolve this is the open question,’ he said. ‘A real measure of how this all comes out is whether China is going to commit to a peaceful resolution here. If they don’t, then I worry a great deal that it’s much more likely there will be conflict.’…”