In a single day, Wednesday, November 2, 2022, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, better known as North Korea, launched a substantial 23 missiles, “seven short-range ballistic missiles and 16 other missiles, including six surface-to-air ones.” The isolated country also “fired about 100 artillery shells.” This “unprecedented” bombardment, as South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff called it, adds to the tally of a record-breaking year for the North, which has carried out “more than 50 missile launches … in 2022.” For a striking visual history of North Korea’s increasing missile launches, check out this graph spanning from 1984 to today.
One missile in particular aggravated the indelible strain between the divided region, landing 16 miles past the maritime boundary, called the Northern Limit Line; 35 miles from the South’s city of Sokcho; and 104 miles northwest of its Ulleung Island, “triggering air raid sirens” and subsequent evacuations underground.
Granted, the DPRK “has never recognized” the NLL as legitimate upon its establishment by the United Nations Command sometime after the Korean War in the early 1950s. And even the South, which has, responded to the 23 missiles by launching its own “three air-to-surface, precision-guided missiles” deliberately across the NLL “at the same distance of 26 kilometers (16 miles).”
They Said, They Said
These “tit-for-tat launches,” as the BBC described them, correspond to the finger-pointing on both sides. South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol characterized the North’s missiles as “an ‘effective territorial invasion.’” Meanwhile the Workers’ Party of Korea, the sole existing party presiding over the North’s authoritarian regime, charged South Korea and its strongest ally the United States as the instigators, claiming that their joint military exercises, collectively named Vigilant Storm, were actually “an invasion rehearsal.”
Vigilant Storm, which began on Monday, October 31, consisted of “more than 1,600 sorties” with “more than 240 aircraft” from the two nations, and even an additional tanker from the Royal Australian Air Force. “After a five-year hiatus” attempting “to pursue rapprochement with North Korea,” the operation was initiated due to warning signs of the North’s growing nuclear armament.
Indeed, North Korea certainly showed no signs of backing down, launching several more missiles on November 3, among them another U.N. violation, an intercontinental ballistic missile that failed mid-flight. In response, Vigilant Storm was extended, and a statement during a joint United States-South Korean news conference declared: “Any nuclear attack against the United States or its allies and partners, including the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, is unacceptable and will result in the end of the Kim regime,” in reference to North Korea dictator Kim Jong-un.
But the North didn’t stop there. On November 5, it shot another “four ballistic missiles into the sea,” even “as the United States sent two supersonic bombers streaking over South Korea.” On Monday, November 6, the General Staff of North Korea’s military released an official statement, which said in part: “The more persistently the enemies’ provocative military moves continue, the more thoroughly and mercilessly the KPA [Korean People’s Army] will counter them.”
If its actions of recent years are any indication, it’s no surprise North Korea is gunning hard to become a nuclear power. Since September 8 of this year, its freshly modified “escalatory nuclear doctrine … authorizes preemptive nuclear attacks in loosely defined crisis situations.” It “has conducted six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017, and is rumoured to be planning a seventh.” By these tests and launches, it has repeatedly and brashly defied resolution after resolution from a United Nations Security Council determined upon global denuclearization. The Council’s punishments for the violations, prolific sanctions ranging from military to luxury goods, have apparently not succeeded in deterring the North.
In fact, Pak Jong Chon, a Workers’ Party secretary, issued this threat in response to Vigilant Storm: “The U.S. and South Korea will have to face a terrible case and pay the most horrible price in history.” News reports are denoting this as a reference to nuclear weapons.
A Full Demonstration of Love
So what of this glitzy—and sometimes clunky—exhibition of might and moxie? Beneath this strange tango of bravado seethe real winds of adversity. The Bible says that to kickstart the beginning of the end, “you will hear of wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6).
And admittedly, it catches the breath a little, doesn’t it? Is your natural impulse to build subterranean panic rooms and stay out of sight for a lease of life? Before selling your life savings for a slim stockpile in futility, note that in direct opposition the Bible tells of a people at the end of time, a people “who come out of the great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14), who “[have the] Father’s name written on their foreheads” (14:1) and “who follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (v. 4).
Name denotes character (Exodus 34:5–7). These end-time people have the character of God—love (1 John 4:8). They “[do] not love their lives to the death” (Revelation 12:11); they love the Lamb, Jesus Christ.
Our mission is not to save ourselves. It is not to flex our muscles upon the world stage but to demonstrate the character of Christ to a world besieged in anxiety, fear, and hopelessness.
For practical tools in accomplishing this, try our free presentations “The Christian Armor” and “Mission”—for greater than any battlefield on earth is the battle to be won in every human heart. This is to be the focus of God’s people in these last days.