Pentagon reveals links between North Korea and Iran days after Greg Laurie's End Times warning

Pastor Greg Laurie appears in a screen capture of a video from his YouTube channel. | YouTube/Pastor Greg Laurie

Pentagon officials have said that there is evidence that North Korea may have influenced Iran's recent attempts to launch a cruise missile, just days after evangelist Greg Laurie warned that the link between the two countries could play a part in End Times prophecy.

Laurie, senior pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, noted in a Facebook video on Monday that Biblical prophecy does not seem to mention North Korea, but he suggested that it could very well be aiding Iran, which does play a part in the End Times.

The evangelist said that Iran could be acquiring weapons from North Korea, and he expressed concern that the current nuclear tensions between the Communist regime and the U.S. could potentially mean that America is destroyed before the Bible's End Times scenario.

"Here is what concerns me. We do not find the reigning superpower on the face of the Earth anywhere in the Last Days scenario. Other nations emerge. So where is America? I pray we are not out of the picture, because we have been in some kind of nuclear conflict," he said.

According to Fox News, intelligence reports have revealed that the "midget" submarine used by Iran to launch a cruise missile earlier this week was similar to a submarine that was used to sink a South Korean warship in 2010.

The attempt to launch a Jask-2 cruise missile underwater failed, but nonproliferation experts have long suspected that North Korea and Iran have been sharing expertise on their missile programs.

"The very first missiles we saw in Iran were simply copies of North Korean missiles," said Jeffrey Lewis, a missile proliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

"Over the years, we've seen photographs of North Korean and Iranian officials in each other's countries, and we've seen all kinds of common hardware." he continued.

Pentagon officials have noted that back in January, Iran tested a ballistic missile that was based on a North Korean design. Last summer, Iran also tested another missile similar to a North Korean Musudan, which was the most advanced missile that has been tested by the Communist regime to date.

The officials explained that the extent of North Korea's involvement in the failed launch was never clear, apart from the sharing of technology.

Tensions have risen between President Donald Trump's administration and Kim Jong Un's regime in recent weeks. Trump has condemned Kim for his nuclear weapons rhetoric and ballistic missiles test. North Korea, on the other hand, recently issued a threat proclaiming that the White House will be "reduced to ashes."

Laurie said that the Trump administration should not dismiss Kim's threat to strike America with nuclear weapons. He called on Americans to pray for Trump, whether they voted for him or not.