North Korea plans to send military engineer units to occupied parts of Ukraine to assist Russia’s war effort as early as next month, Reuters reported Monday, citing South Korea’s TV Chosun. North Korea’s plan calls for the engineers to prepare the way for potentially significant numbers of North Korean troops to fight alongside Russian forces.

“This is interpreted to mean that North Korea’s ‘dispatch of troops’ to Russia, which is at war, is imminent,” TV Chosun stated.

The report comes days after Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to North Korea and signed a security pact with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that obligates both nations to come to each other’s assistance if either is attacked. But if the TV Chosun report is accurate, it means Russia and North Korea are not waiting for an outside attack to prompt them to join their forces, but will instead preemptively fight together in a war of aggression.

Since September, North Korea has sent Russia some 11,000 containers holding millions of munitions, as well as an unknown number of ballistic missiles. Alongside suicide drones provided by Iran, and semiconductors and various dual-use goods supplied by China, this has been enough to keep Russia’s war machine humming.

But Russia is also in need of manpower. “[Russia] is facing a situation where the labor shortage has worsened due to war dead, conscription and those who evaded conscription,” Cho Han-beom, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told TV Chosun.

With 7,769,000 reservists, paramilitary and active troops, North Korea has the world’s largest military force by total number of personnel. So it is well positioned to help Russia mitigate its manpower struggles. And it appears eager to do so.

If North Korea deploys a significant number of soldiers, it could have a serious bearing on Russia’s war against Ukraine. In light of Bible prophecy, this news takes on particular importance.

Ezekiel 38:2 describes an individual called the “prince of Rosh,” or “prince of Russia” (New King James Version). Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has identified Vladimir Putin as this prince. In his 2017 booklet The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia,’ he writes: “This world has a lot of authoritarian rulers. But Vladimir Putin is one we need to keep a particularly close eye on. His track record, his nationality and his ideology show that he is fulfilling a linchpin Bible prophecy. The time frame of his rule also shows that nobody else could be fulfilling the Ezekiel 38 and 39 prophecy.”

These chapters in Ezekiel show that this “prince” will soon be leading a massive army that will play a central role in a nuclear world war. Revelation 9:16 details exactly how massive the force will be: “the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand.”

This means 200 million troops, which is a number 15 times the size of the largest army ever assembled in human history. But Russia, with a total population just over 140 million, could never field this number of troops on its own.

Ezekiel 38 lists several ancient names signifying modern Asian nations that will subordinate themselves to Russia and join their armies to make this 200 million-man force. Verses 2 through 5 list names signifying modern China and India. And verse 6 lists Gomer, which the Trumpet explains in our January 2018 issue is “the primary ancestor of modern Korea.”

It is clear from these passages that Korean soldiers will be part of the gargantuan multinational Asian force that Putin will soon lead. And to see North Korea today subordinating itself to Putin’s Russia, supplying vast amounts of weaponry, and even planning to send men to assist the war effort, shows that the groundwork is already being laid for North Korea to take its place in the Putin-led 200 million-man army.

It is clear that dark years lie ahead for Russia, Ukraine, North Korea and the entire world. But Mr. Flurry stresses in his booklet that this darkness will be short-lived and will give way to a radiant and hope-filled future. He writes:

Vladimir Putin is a sign, literally a sign … of one of the most inspiring messages in the Bible. What we are seeing in Russia ultimately leads to the transition from man ruling man to God ruling man! … A great transition is about to occur.

To understand the details of these Bible prophecies and “the most inspiring message in the Bible,” order your free copy of The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia.’