In what is believed to be a show of strength intended to intimidate South Korea, North Korea fired several salvos of an unspecified number of suspected cruise missiles from land-based and air-based platforms, into the Sea of Japan on Tuesday.
If confirmed, it would be North Korea’s first cruise missile launch since June 2017, said a South Korean defense official, who spoke to The Associated Press news agency on condition of anonymity.
The barrage began on Tuesday morning when North Korean ground troops based in the city of Munchon on the east coast of North Korea launched several projectiles that South Korea authorities tentatively identified as cruise missiles. Several Sukhoi-variant and MiG fighter jets fired multiple air-to-ground rockets while overflying city of Wonsan. The weapons flew at least 93 miles before dropping into the Sea of Japan.
The timing of the displays of military might came a day before North Korea marks the 108th birthday of its late founder, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un. They also came a day ahead of South Korean parliamentary elections.
North Korea has been conducting multiple weapons tests. Last month, it fired nine ballistic missiles in four rounds of tests.
These shows of strength come after negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea concerning its nuclear weapons were stalled.
North and South Korea are technically at war. Hostilities began in June 1950 when North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union and China, invaded its southern neighbor. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. The fighting ended on 27 July 1953, when the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed however no peace treaty was ever signed. The Korean War was among the most destructive conflicts of the modern era, with approximately 3 million war fatalities and a larger proportional civilian death toll than World War II or the Vietnam War. It incurred the destruction of virtually all of Korea’s major cities.
Hope was lifted in April 2018, when U.S. President Trump facilitated a meeting between the leaders of North and South Korea met at the Demilitarized Zone and agreed to work towards a treaty to formally end the Korean War.
It should be noted that North Korea has frequently been identified as a major player in the pre-Messiah war of Gog and Magog. Just before his passing in 1995, Rav Levi Sa’adia Nachmani, a mystical rabbi from Israel who accurately predicted the Six Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973, clearly stated in this video, that Korea is Magog. This claim has been generally accepted by many rabbinic end-of-days experts.
