Some years ago, a film crew from South Korea’s public broadcasting system came to my home to interview me on things to do with Bible prophecy. I remember them as quiet and very polite. We interviewed for about three hours, and I recall that most of my thoughts during that time were along the lines of: “How can these be the same basic people as their brothers and sisters of North Korea?”

The incongruity of these smiling, gentle journalists and film crew as juxtaposed against my perception of Kim Jong-il, his successor and son, Kim Jong-Un, and the people of the “Axis of Evil” couldn’t have been more dramatic. The North Korean dictator was saber-rattling then, as his dictator-son continues to do periodically today. His antics are mixed with the occasional hands-in-the-air, palms-out-in-professional-wrestler-fashion claim to the referee he planned nothing dastardly. These from South Korea were just the opposite—good guys, who even left for my wife a beautifully crafted porcelain dish as their appreciation for our hospitality.

The peoples of both north and south of the 38th parallel on the Korean peninsula being so close racially and in geographic proximity, why, the thought continues to ruminate, does one people move freely and peaceably about the world, even visiting my home, while the other people harbor thoughts of igniting nuclear war for the sake of enabling a tin-horn tyrant?

Bible prophecy leaps to the forefront of the thoughts. The north is under the influence, indeed, of the evil one. George W. Bush had it right, whether it was the term inspired by the president’s own brain or those of his speech writers. The leaders of the North Korean regime have demonstrated consistently that it is under luciferian influence, as are other diabolists with whom they are in league.

Enter the chief diabolist state of the Asiatic evil empire that Bible prophecy foretells will one day rage into the occidental world:

Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, “Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.” And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. (Rev 9: 14-16)

China is touted today as the merging industrial entity that will eventually overtake the U.S. as the economic superpower of the world. The woolly-minded predict in some quarters that China’s newfound economic clout will ultimately make it a responsible world citizen. However, God’s Word almost certainly refers to the great Chinese behemoth when foretelling a massive force that could be spawned by no other nation-state.

China is asserting itself not only in building islands and claiming territorial waters through aggressive expansion of its bases in the South China Sea and other waters close to its territory. It now is moving into territorial waters in regions much more concerning to American defense planners.

Five Chinese naval ships are currently positioned in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska, US officials confirm.

It is believed to be the first time Chinese military vessels have been seen operating in the area. Officials say they have been monitoring the ships’ activities, but said they were operating in international waters. In recent years Beijing has taken a more assertive stance on maritime territorial disputes with Japan and South East Asian nations. (Five Chinese ships seen off Alaskan coast, Pentagon says, BBC News, September 3, 2015)

There is coming a time when the huge forces of the Orient will become deadly in their aggression.

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. (Rev. 16: 12-14)

It is more than ironic that China, put forward by some “progressives” as a budding good neighbor because of its need to foster good will within the global economic community, has for eons been depicted as a dragon. Shakespeare wrote, “A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.” Call this brutal regime—like that of North Korea, over whom it exerts hegemony—a good neighbor, budding industrial giant or whatever…Bible prophecy seems to be forewarning that a dragon by any other name smells just as dangerous.