On May 25 North Korea conducted its second underground nuclear test and the next day, in addition to test firing short-range ballistic missiles, the isolated regime and international pariah unilaterally withdrew from its 1953 armistice treaty with South Korea.
Astrologers will observe that the June 1950 outbreak of the Korean War has now had its second Saturn return. Will hostilities continue to escalate?
Your correspondent has rectified the mundane horoscope for the outbreak of the Korean War. According to military records, hostilities commenced in the pre-dawn hours of June 25, 1950 when the North Korean army crossed the DMZ, invaded the South, and wound up occupying Seoul in just three days.
Rectifying the war chart to 04:29:10 AM local time places the Ascendant at 21°22′ Gemini, which is precisely conjunct the U.S. Sibly Mars (exact to the degree and minute of arc). Progressing this war chart diurnally (using 19:29:10 GMT of the previous evening – the equivalent to 04:29:10 AM local time the next morning) to North Korea’s unilateral withdrawal from its armistice with the South on May 26 (May 25 GMT), one finds transit Mars in an exact-to-the-minute-of-arc conjunction with the war chart’s progressed MC. (1) The Sun in the war chart has also progressed to a conjunction with the IC (end of matter), exact to 03′ of arc.
With so much bellicose rhetoric coming out of Pyongyang, and the nullification of the truce ending the Korean War, it is no wonder that the retrograde station of Uranus in 26° Pisces is exactly opposite the progressed Mercury in the 1950 war chart. North Korea’s arrogant and cocky flexing of its military muscle can also be clearly seen in the progressed Mars of the war chart now applying to a trine with Jupiter (exact to 02′).
It has been this writer’s experience that the Galactic Center degree of 26° Sagittarius is highly malefic and here we find the war chart’s current secondary progressed Moon. In December 1941, for example, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and brought the United States into World War II, the U.S. Sibly progressed Sun had just entered 26° Sagittarius the month before. In April 1865, the month that President Lincoln was assassinated, the U.S. Sibly Midheaven was also in 26° Sagittarius.
Indications of severe international condemnation for this unpredictable and isolated country are also evident in the mundane horoscope for North Korea. Saturn is transiting its national Sun three times, with the final pass becoming exact on June 27. What is quite disturbing, and a troubling indication of the possibility for a violent outbreak of war on the Korean Peninsula, is the direct station of Pluto in 00°39′ Capricorn on September 11, of all days, in exact opposition to the North Korean Uranus. These planets, with their rulerships of plutonium and uranium, can be associated with the potential for the usage of nuclear weapons.
Sober astrologers will take no heart in the progressed Sun-Pluto square in the North Korean horoscope nearing exactitude. The nearly exact progressed trine of Mars and Pluto (2) is a further indication that the North now has the technology mastered in order to put a nuclear warhead onto a ballistic missile. Japan is in range of the nuclear capabilities of North Korea and with the progressed Mars in the 1950 war chart in the same degree as the progressed MC in the North Korean horoscope, one should not expect U.N. Security Council sanctions to do anything other than to prod this regime to pull the trigger on the South or to engage in naval warfare with the United States if interdiction of its vessels is attempted.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, at an annual meeting of defense and security officials in Singapore, recently stated that North Korea’s progress on nuclear weapons and long-range missiles is “a harbinger of a dark future” and he also said that “We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia – or on us.”
In order to properly assess the mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the likelihood of war breaking out, astrologers should also examine the nativity and progressed horoscope of Kim Jong-il, the eccentric and despotic leader of the North Korean people. (3)
Remarkably, the retrograde station of Jupiter in 27°01′ Aquarius precisely conjoins his Sun. As transit Pluto forms a cardinal t-cross with his lunar nodes in 02° Aries–Libra, he has arrived at his “life-purpose moment.” Will the irrational hubris of Jupiter further delude him into launching a nuclear war? Or will the planet signifying one’s guardian angels whisper into his ear and tell him that he cannot unleash the violent destruction that an ill-thought-out commencement of war with the U.S. would bring to earth.
His erratic and unpredictable behavior can be seen in the Aquarius Sun in square to Uranus. He was born at the Grand Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 9° Taurus in 1941 and his natal Uranus is in the exact degree of the May 2000 Jupiter-Saturn alignment. In addition, his progressed Jupiter is also passing through the 23rd degree of Taurus over a four-year period. The direct station of Mercury on May 30 occurred in 22°52′ Taurus.
Much has been written about his love of cognac and Hollywood films, his fear of flying, and a penchant for beautiful women. Astrologers see that he is highly intelligent, as he possesses one of C.E.O. Carter’s six aspects of raw brainpower – a sextile of the Sun and Mars (sextiles and trines of the Sun to Mars, Jupiter or Uranus make up this category of “mensa aspects”).
It is distressing to speculate that during the month of June, the future of the world hinges on the decision of one isolated world leader who with the push of a button could unleash unspeakable devastation upon humanity. One must have faith that the upcoming conjunction of Venus and Mars in the power degree of 15° Taurus at the Cancer ingress on June 21 will favor peace over war. Venus is in dignity while Mars is in detriment, and one prays that another page of world history will be turned without a chapter of war again having to be written.
References:
(1) Using solar arc in longitude progression of the MC.
(2) Both of these are progressed-to-progressed aspects.
(3) Kim Jong-il; Feb 16 1941; Vyatskoye, Soviet Union (48°N16′ 135°E06′); 12:00 PM UZ9. Source: Wikipedia, noon chart used.
© 2009 Robert P. Blaschke