Timeline (Homefront)

This is a timeline of events chronicling the events of Homefront and the events preceding it. Many of the events are sourced from Newspapers found in the game.

Pre-2000s

1910

• August 22: The Empire of Japan occupies the Korean Peninsula.

1912

• April 15: Kim Il-sung, future founder of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is born.

1939

• September 1: World War II begins with the Nazi German invasion of Poland.

1941

• December 7: The United States enters World War II following the Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor.

1942

• February 16: Kim Jong-il is born.

1945

• August 6–9: The United States drops two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

• August 15: Japan unconditionally surrenders. Korea gains independence from the Empire of Japan.

• August 28: The Korean peninsula is split at the 38th parallel with the North administered by the Soviet Union and the South administered by the United States.

• September 2: World War II ends with the surrender of Japan to the Allied powers.

1947

• The Cold War begins.

1948

• August 15: The Republic of Korea (South Korea) is established.

• September 9: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established.

1949

• October 1: The Chinese Civil War ends in Communist victory. The People's Republic of China is established.

1950

• June 25: The Korean War begins with the North invading the South.

• October 25: Chinese forces intervene in the Korean War on the side of North Korea.

1953

• July 27: The Korean War ends with an armistice. The two Koreas are technically at a state of war.

1960s

• Hopper Lee's grandparents escape North Korea and seek asylum in the United States.

1966-1969

• The Korean DMZ conflict occurs.

1982

• January 8: Kim Jong-un is born.

1983

• October 9: North Korean agents attempt to assassinate the South Korean President while visiting in Burma known as the Rangoon Bombing. Salmusa's father takes part in this.

1990s

• The Utah survivalists, fearing the effects of the Y2K bug, begin acquiring weapons and prepare for an apocalyptic scenario.

1994

• The North Korean famine of 1994 occurs.

1998

• September 1: North Korea launched a Taepodong 1 missile over Japan, but failed to achieve orbit.

2000s

2001

• September 11: The September 11 attacks occurred.

• October 7: A US-led coalition invaded Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

2003

• March 20: The Iraq War begins.

2006

• July 6: North Korea stages a series of missile tests that began at 3:30 AM local time (2:30 PM ET) and lasted for five hours. According to Pentagon officials, the Taepodong 2 missile failed 40 seconds into its launch. The U.S., Japan and the United Nations strongly condemned the tests.

2009

• June 29: Kim Jong-il officially appoints his son, Kim Jong-un, as his intended successor.

2010s

2010

Homefront timeline story 1

Hillary Clinton speaks, concerning about the sinking of Cheonan.

• A North Korean submarine sank the South Korean naval ship Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors as a result.

2011

Homefront timeline story 2

Television news reports about North Korea's nuclear weapons.

• North Korea conducts a nuclear missile test as a "rightful" response to "Western aggression", resulting in another round of U.N. sanctions.

2012

Homefront timeline story 3

Kim Jong-Un becomes the new leader of North Korea.

• January 2: Kim Jong-il dies and is succeeded by his son, Kim Jong-un, who declares his intention to commit his government to a "new era of peace and openness."

• March 18: A UN investigation team led by Hans Blix are unable to locate weapons of mass destruction anywhere in North Korea after Kim Jong-un had publicly stated on numerous occasions his intent to re-engage with the rest of the world through openness and transparency, surprising the international community.

• May 18: In the wake of falling demand for Chinese-made goods, workers at a Taiwanese facility near Beijing clashed with authorities after a wave of firings. The year has seen a loss of 15% of jobs in the manufacturing sector in China and many experts suspected that the trend will continue as the recent crash in the housing market continues to ravage the American economy.

• October 5: In a joint press conference the U.S. President and U.K. Prime Minister announced that the United States and United Kingdom will begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and transitioning military control to the U.S.-trained Iraqi military.  

2013

Homefront timeline story 4

Kim Jong-Un announces the Korean reunification at the United Nations.

• January 17: Kim Jong-un is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the Korean War and bring lasting peace to the Korean Peninsula. After more than a year of intensive negotiations, the governments of the two Koreas have begun talks of reunification under a "one nation, two-system solution."

• February 19: South Korea sweeps in a new wave of nationalism resulting from the global economic downturn in which the newly elected South Korean government blames the U.S. for the financial crisis. Critics in the U.S. rebutted on South Korea's claims and clarifying the Korean economic problems stemming from re-integrating millions of poor, unskilled North Koreans into the regional economy. Many South Koreans believes the U.S./South Korea military alliance has lost its value, and that the U.S. military presence in the country is no longer needed.

• April 24: Saudi Arabia and Iran have since filled the void of the United States' former presence in the Middle East, and have been expanding their respective militaries. The Iraqi government is left on shaky ground as the Middle Eastern superpowers are scrambling for control in Iraq.

• August 27: The U.S. Defense Department announces the U.S. military will begin its withdrawal from South Korea.

• November 17: North and South Korea is reunified, forming the Greater Korean Republic.

• December 3: A series of reforms aimed at stomping speculation in the sector, enacted after the wild price spikes in 2008, temporarily appeared to smooth out fluctuations in the market. However, a cascade of unforeseen events (including a strike in Venezuela and ongoing political instability in Nigeria) cause analysts to question the global market's ability to keep pace with demand, and result in oil prices as low as $70 a barrel and as high as $200, making it difficult to say how a market as essential to global economic health will weather any additional instability. Analysts also fear that as demand returns and supply cannot be met, prices will skyrocket out of control, further depressing the global economy, and major American automobile manufacturers are feeling the crunch as demand for personal vehicles has bottomed out, possibly affecting other petroleum dependent sectors.

2014

• U.S. Military forces finish their withdrawal from South Korea in a short but moving flag-lowering ceremony at the Yongsan Garrison.

• March 16: Kim Jong-un continues to reverse his father's policies, including an audit of the prisoners in North Korea's notorious labor camps, calling for a dismantling of the Demilitarized Zone, and begins the first steps toward integrating the economies and militaries of the two Koreas.

• April 3: The Korean governments planned on integrating the large majority of 4 million strong North Korean soldiers into South Korea's military structure.

• May 4: The United States and Japan broke off talks to extend America's presence on the Island of Okinawa. Citizens both in Japan and the U.S. see the massive economic costs resulting from the forces in the area as wasteful and not particularly valuable in an age of pronounced economic decline.

• July 21: Facing increased pressure from policy makers, the Pentagon announced its plan to re-scope the U.S. military's procurement priorities and focusing more on Special Operations teams and the use of unmanned vehicles.

• August 27: The global economy continues to decline, with palpable effects all over the United States, with Americans waiting for hours in line to receive supplies and simple goods (such as asthma medicine) that were once easy to come by.

• November 1: General Motors declares bankruptcy for the second time. Gas is priced at $9 a gallon, as American consumers are beginning to value cars that are less status symbols and more machines of a specific quality and function.

• November 14: Due to the arms race between Iran and Saudi Arabia, both Middle Eastern nations became nuclear armed states.

2015

Homefront timeline story 5

Gas prices are rising.

• Gas prices rise up to $20 a gallon, partly due to increasing instability in the Middle East. Survivalist books like Jon Irving's "The American Survivalist" become bestsellers in the United States. United States unemployment rate is at 30%.

• February 28: Kim Jong-un becomes the first president of the established Greater Korean Republic in the first democratic elections held in the newly reunited country. More than 70% of the country's combined population turned out to give him an overwhelming majority in the popular vote.

• July: The Iraqi government collapses after three years of ethnic unrest.

Homefront timeline story 6

Radio news mentions about Russia and Ukraine, cutting off oil and natural gas trade with Europe.

• August 5: As the economies of China and the United States continue to simultaneously collapse, Russia signs a "mutual interest" pact with Ukraine, keeping their oil between the two countries, and cutting off all oil and natural gas trade with the rest of Europe. American commentaries note that this action will inevitably have brutal consequences for Western Europe.

• August 17: Kim Jong-un begins a rapid modernizing program of the Korean People's Army.

• August 18: In response to Iran's incursion into Iraq's northern provinces, Saudi Arabia moved into Iraq's southern provinces with the goal of protecting the Sunni Muslim refugees in the area.

• September 2: The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis joined the USS Theodore Roosevelt as the second ship of its type to be decommissioned as part of the U.S. military's downsizing efforts, as large capital ships have become to be regarded as redundant, expensive and inflexible.

2016

Homefront timeline story 7

The press conference about the withdrawal of U.S. Forces in Asia.

• The U.S. Army withdraws from Japan and other countries overseas, focusing on its instability back home.

• Texas begins closing its borders to refugees through bloodshed.

• February 13: American professors and students in the reunited Korea are critical of the new regime, indicating that Kim Jong-un's government is far from a democracy and made measures to quash all opposition to his "New Chosun Party", the dominating political party of the Korean government.

• May 21: The U.S. Pacific Fleet is consolidated to Pearl Harbor for the first time since World War II, as a result of funding reductions. The U.S. Navy refocuses its mission on the rampant piracy and drug smuggling that plagues the west coast of North America.

• June 8: Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey formed a coalition to stabilize and guide the shaky nation of Iraq with support from the United States. Iran belligerently called the coalition an "unacceptable Saudi intervention," and declared its intent to defend Iraq from Saudi Arabia turning the country into a "client state." With support from the Kurds and the resurgent Afghani Taliban, Iran launched its first incursions into Iraq and instigating the Oil Wars.

• June 8: Representatives from the US Immigration and Naturalization Service and Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced an end to the longstanding "Open Borders" policy that has defined the relationship between the United States and Canada. Special permits still continue to be issued for vehicles carrying critical supplies, including oil and building materials, as well as food and medicine.

• September 18: Rising demand from across the globe, coupled with instability in the Persian Gulf region, have caused gas prices in the U.S. to skyrocket. The Californian state government enacted a fuel rationing system, focusing on interstate shipping with an emphasis on food and medicine, and to discourage using gasoline for personal transportation.

• November 26: California joined Texas and Florida in enacting strict border control policies with the states along their northern borders. Meant to curb the influx of starving, freezing Americans from the north, the policies have been met with controversy and outrage.

• December 3: Due to an extremely cold winter and the inability to heat homes, the U.S. states of New York, Minnesota and Delaware have each reported over 10,000 deaths from hypothermia and cold related illnesses. The U.S. government sets up "national heating centers", large facilities to heat over 20,000 high-risk individuals across the northern states.

2017

• The EMP grenade is developed.

• February 23: The GKR military strives for focus and relentless perfectionism, training on technologies imported from all over the world, including from the United States.

• July 2: Due to the changes brought about by the Great Arab War's disruption of global energy supplies, many in New York embrace an old-fashioned way of life, with more and more rooftops and balconies bearing patches of green bearing fruits and vegetables.

• July 7: Following an alleged assassination attempt by Korean agents on the Japanese royal family, violent protests and riots erupted as ethnic Koreans in Japan are attacked by Japanese demonstrators and nationalists.

• August 2: Gasoline in the U.S. has become increasingly scarce in recent months, which many blame on the ongoing unrest in the Middle East. Illegal black market gas dealerships are becoming widespread in America.

• August 23: In response to the violent attacks on ethnic Koreans in Japan, on Korean television President Kim Jong-un promises to protect Korean countrymen overseas.

• September 18: A school bus driver was killed by two State Troopers while attempting to steal gas at an Atlanta gas station.

• September 23: Korea speaks out against Japan at a UN meeting in Brussels, providing compelling photographic evidences that Japanese police are involved in systematic attacks against ethnic Koreans. As tension in Japan escalates, Korean nationals are returning to the mainland while others fell victim to Japanese nationalists.

• October 29: Martial law is declared in the U.S. due to an outbreak of riots after the financial crash and the crumbling of U.S. infrastructure.

2018

• The XM10, a U.S. weapons prototype project loses its funding due to the economic struggles of the country. Government agricultural subsidies dry up this year, forcing many farmers to find jobs in the cities.

• April 1: Korea declares war on Japan after Kim Jong-un declared that Korea had a "heavenly mandate" to protect ethnic Koreans being murdered in Japan.

• April 2: Hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens flee from southern Japan after Korean Special Operations teams destroyed the Chugoku nuclear power plant.

Homefront timeline story 8

Japan surrenders.

• April 7: In a losing war against the Korean People's Army, Japan surrenders to Korea and is annexed into the Greater Korean Republic.

• October 5: The United Nations, led by the United States, passed a resolution condemning Korea for the destruction of the Chugoku nuclear power plant as a human rights violation. However, the U.N. is helpless to act.

2019

• The United Nations (at least temporarily) goes out of commission.

• February 2: French authorities presented evidences to the United Nations that the GKR is using existing Japanese infrastructure to develop nuclear weapons that are based on the American-made Peacekeeper ICBM.

• July 7: Faced with a lack of food and a looming winter, many Americans have decided to take matters into their own hands and coming into direct conflict with an ineffective National Guard. The U.S. government begins to deploy the U.S. military into the hardest-hit cities.

• December 12: Civilians riot over MRE rations being distributed by Maryland National Guardsmen.

2020s

2020

• Canada closes its borders to the United States.

• August 8: The Greater Korean Republic has overtaken all other nations as the number one supplier of enterprise and military-grade electronics.

• October 18: Korean Special Forces and the Iranian Coalition work together in joint operations in northern Iraq to help restore order.

• November 18: The U.S. military takes over the functions of many emergency services, as well as the distribution of basic goods. As semblance of order is being restored to the United States, many Americans flee the suburbs for the U.S. military-managed urban centers.

2021

• The GKR successfully annexes most of the nations in Southeast Asia. A new pandemic known as the "Knoxville Cough" breaks out in America. The American isolationist movement grows. The H5N1 virus, after causing almost 100,000 deaths worldwide is labeled a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

• April 7: Malaysia became the fifth country to join Kim Jong-un's Greater Korean Republic, doing so willingly. Vietnam and Cambodia become additional candidates for membership.

• May 28: Due to the GKR's dominance of the microchip industry, many throughout the world, including the U.S. military, make use of Korean products. It is discovered that every Korean-made microchip has a massive backdoor exploit waiting to be activated, resulting in caution and skepticism.

• July 14: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention issues a no-travel warning to Minnesota and Ohio due to cases of Knoxville cough being identified in St. Paul and Akron.

2022

• Mexico closes its borders to America, in order to prevent the Knoxville Cough contagion. Hyperinflation pushes the U.S. dollar to the edge of collapse.

• June 9: Cargo carriers, having since abandoned from use due to the economic slide, are retrofitted by the GKR military for a flexible means of transportation. The first converted cargo carrier left from the Port of Busan, carrying a contingent of Korean troops to Japan to help quell the rebellious Northern Prefectures.

• August 19: U.S. federal officials ends the Congressional "Declaration of a Public Health Emergency", signaling an official end to the Knoxville Cough that has rocked the American Midwest, with at least 18 million casualties resulting from the pandemic. The World Health Organization stated that peak H5N1 activity had likely passed for most of the world, but the virus was still circulating in some regions.

Homefront timeline story 10

Emergency Broadcast in 2023 about the Knoxville Cough.

2023

• The Korean People's Army reaches 25 million total personnel, becoming the largest standing military in the world.

• October 3: Nations around the world lauded the GKR for its recent "peacekeeping" intervention in a civil war in Nigeria, as international suspicion of the Greater Korean Republic appears to be transforming into a more positive opinion.

2024

• May 6: The GKR launches its own fleet of satellites based on the captured M-V rockets at the Uchinoura Space Center to "support" America's failing GPS system, which America could no longer afford to maintain.

2025

Homefront timeline story 11

EMP weapon detonated over the United States.

• January 16: Thursday - The Greater Korean Republic, using a military satellite disguised as a GPS satellite, detonate an EMP blast over the United States, shutting down all electronic devices throughout the country and wiping out much of North America's power grid.

• January 18–20: KPA forces seized Hawaii.

• January 21: The current President of the United States, who has served for two terms, gives a farewell address noting the massive changes the Union has endured, and leaves the office to his successor.

Homefront timeline story 12

The news broadcast about the KPA's invasion of the United States.

• January 25: KPA forces begin landing in the continental United States, landing in San Francisco and dropping paratroopers in the Midwest.

2026

Hoover Dam re-naming ceremony, in honor of the Glorious Leader Kim Jong-un. Las Vegas, NV. November 24, 2026.

The KPA has occupied the United States for one year. Contact with the U.S. east of the Mississippi River is lost to the occupied west. The KPA launches Operation Water Snake to irradiate the Mississippi River and the surrounding area, effectively creating a border between the occupied west and free east. A mass grave is created in St. Louis.

• January 12–22: The first resistance cells spring up across the NKFOA.

• January 24: Las Vegas is lost.

• March 16: Salt Lake City is destroyed.

• November 24: Hoover Dam is re-named in honor of Kim Jong-un.

2027

2027 is the third year of the Korean Occupation. The events of Homefront take place in this year. The population of the United States is down to 275 million from 310 million in 2010.

• Sept. 1: The events of Why We Fight begin with the forceful removal of Robert Jacobs from his apartment in Montrose by the KPA and his subsequent escape thanks to the American Resistance.

• Sept. 2: The Montrose Resistance infiltrates the Montrose labor camp, steals GPS locater beacons, and kills dozens of KPA soldiers.

• Sept. 3: The Montrose and Gunnison Resistance assault a KPA fuel depot in Montrose. In retaliation, the KPA firebomb half of Montrose including the Oasis safehouse. The Montrose Resistance escapes from the town.

• Sept. 3: The "Battle of Sierra Street" occurs in Modesto, California.

• After Sept. 3: The Montrose Resistance assaults a Survivalist encampment in Utah and secure a Scout Helicopter. The group then hijacks three KPA fuel tankers. They then join with U.S. forces for the Battle of San Francisco, ending in a major U.S. victory, leading to the European Union convening to debate support for America at long last.

• Sept. 8: Montrose Elementary School opens for the new year. It is doubtful that many children attend due to the suppression of the Sept. 3rd uprising.

Trivia

• It may be noted that the backstories of Homefront produced by Kaos Studios somehow coincidentally, yet rarely predict future events. The actual death of Kim Jong-il occurred only a month before the prediction in the game's backstory. A major viral pandemic (COVID-19) also occurred in the early 2020s.

• The Homefront setting share some similarities to Frontlines: Fuel of War, which was also developed by Kaos Studios. These include a global energy crisis, a worldwide avian influenza outbreak, and a rising East Asian superpower.

External links

• Thornton McEnery (March 29, 2011). "THE SCARIEST VIDEO GAME EVER: How North Korea Will Take Over America In 15 Years". Business Insider.