Originally Posted by Guest

A piece in the NYT about a recent visit to North Korea is both scary and sobering. I'll enclose a link and just a little bit of it:
Yet as Washington and Pyongyang confront each other over the North’s advancing nuclear weapons capability, the warlike rhetoric is escalating and, with it, the risk of conflict. After four days in North Korea, I am not at all sure that this standoff will end well. It was unsettling to hear ordinary North Koreans talk of war with calm acceptance and buy their government’s propaganda happy talk about certain victory over the United States.
...In Mr. Choe’s telling, North Korea was driven to become a nuclear power in self-defense against America’s “nuclear blackmail,” sanctions, history of confrontation, and affront to the sovereignty and dignity of the state. The North must establish “a balance of power” to hold Washington at bay, finally replace the Korean War armistice with a permanent peace treaty and focus attention on economic development, he said.
...Our interviews have persuaded me that it is also imperative for Washington to ease up on the rhetoric. Mr. Trump’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month crossed a line for many North Koreans because it made the fight deeply personal...

Seeing the North Korean Stalemate From the Other Side - The New York Times