ESCALATION

The situation around N Korea is hard to predict, mainly because we are dealing with an unstable regime as led by a highly unstable leader. The situation is clearly escalating and involving more and more countries:

N Korea deploys SA-2 surface-to-air missiles

North Korea has deployed SA-2 surface-to-air missiles to its west coast near the Yellow Sea border with South Korea as U.S.-led naval drills got underway in a show of force against the North's deadly artillery attack on a South Korean island earlier last week, government sources said Sunday.

China Protests U.S.-South Korea Exercises

Beijing on Friday lodged its first official protest of a joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise planned for Sunday, even as the aircraft carrier USS George Washington steamed toward the region.

North Korea also responded angrily. "The situation on the Korean peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war," the state controlled Korean Central News Agency responded Friday to the maneuvers, which are set to take place in the Yellow Sea between the Koreas and northeastern China.

The strong talk was the latest fallout from North Korea's hour-long artillery attack of a South Korean island on Tuesday that killed four people...heightening fears in some quarters that already-tense relations between North and South Korea—and their respective international protectors, China and the U.S.—could be heading for a showdown.

Japan spots Chinese vessels near disputed islands" report

The Japanese coast guard has spotted two Chinese vessels attempting on Sunday to enter waters near islands in the East China Sea that are disputed by the two countries, Kyodo News reported.

Relations between Asia's two biggest economies soured in September after Japan detained a Chinese skipper whose fishing boat collided with Japanese patrol vessels off the disputed islands, which are near potentially rich maritime gas reserves.

China Calls for Urgent Talks on North Korea

Chinese envoy Wu Dawei said chief negotiators to the six-nation talks are being asked to come to Beijing in early December for the emergency session "to exchange views on major issues of concern to the parties at present."

China quickened its diplomatic efforts to ease tensions between North and South Korea, calling Sunday for an emergency meeting of envoys to North Korean nuclear disarmament talks.

Japan Concerned as Military Tensions Continue

Beginning with Prime Minister Naoto Kan's order for his cabinet members to stay in Tokyo and remain on stand-by until Wednesday, in case an emergency situation develops in Korea, the Japanese government is taking steps to prepare against a possible regional crisis.

On Sunday morning, Kan summoned three senior officials to the prime minister's office including Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and instructed them to address the tense situation between the two Koreas "in a firm manner without lowering our guard."

And reports of Japan's Self-Defense Agency deploying surveillance and patrol aircrafts as well as AWACS, an airborne radar system, have also been coming in.

India to deploy 36,000 extra troops on Chinese border

India has formed two new army divisions - comprising more than 36,000 men - to defend the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

The remote north-eastern state adjoins China which claims large parts of it.

A total of 1,260 officers and 35,011 soldiers have been assigned to the two new divisions, which are being especially equipped for mountain warfare.

Officials say they were formed at the behest of the Indian army chief, General VK Singh - who said they were necessary to beef up defences against China.

He said their formation was India's response to the "huge Chinese build-up" in Tibet over the last three to four years. But he did not wish to elaborate.

America's Grim Options on North Korea

For the past week, the stunning report of nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker regarding North Korea’s uranium enrichment program has been sending shock waves throughout the world.

This is indeed an extremely grave development, although the most serious aspect of it is not what most people think, i.e., the mere fact that North Korea has the bomb — that particular horse left the barn several years ago.

Instead, the most dangerous aspect of North Korean nuclear-state status is the fact that the DPRK has a very consistent record of selling every weapons technology it possesses to literally anyone who will buy. This record includes the regime’s well-known deal with Pakistan to obtain uranium and uranium enrichment technology in exchange for missiles. Other customers included Iran, Libya, Syria, and Yemen.

The result of the DPRK’s dramatically enhanced uranium enrichment capacity is a situation much worse than the one which nearly triggered a war in 1994, during the Clinton administration. Compared to then, North Korean nuclear capability is now a fact, not a possibility; and unless action is taken, the regime will begin adding warheads to its arsenal at the rate of perhaps one a month.

Korean war tensions mount as South rejects talks amid threats from North

North Korea threatened to inflict "a merciless military blow" if the naval war games the US and South Korea launched on the Yellow Sea border Sunday, Nov. 28 encroached on its waters.

Hours later, for good measure, artillery fire echoed from the North Korean mainland on the island shelled last Tuesday - apparently from military practices. This added to the jitters in Seoul over the worst incident between the two Koreas in more than 50 years.

Later Sunday, South Korea rejected China's call for urgent Six-Power consultations in Beijing early next month (among North and South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the US) to help resolve the escalating crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

Its nuclear test of May 2009, the submarine torpedo which sunk the South Korean Cheonan on March 26 causing 46 deaths and the artillery attack on Yeonpyeong represent the tools and norms of Pyongyang's foreign policy, for which it enjoys Chinese support.

In keeping with those norms, North Korea is bound to respond forcibly to the US-South Korean war game, unless held back by Beijing. Not knowing how or when this will happen is putting many world capitals on edge.

We see "wars and rumors of war" almost everywhere we turn. Its one of the many signs that Jesus gave us and we find these words to be ever so true - just like all biblical prophecy.

The big question for a prophecy watcher is - where will this situation go and what will it lead to next?

There is no telling - but its hard to imagine that something of this magnitude, at this point in history won't have a prophetic role to play. We shall see.