War jitters

Sam Kim has an AP article about the latest out of North Korea:

North Korea issued its latest belligerent threat recently, saying it has entered "a state of war" with South Korea, a day after its young leader threatened the United States because two American B-2 bombers flew a training mission in South Korea.
Analysts say a full-scale conflict is extremely unlikely, and North Korea's threats are instead aimed at drawing Washington into talks that could result in aid and boosting leader Kim Jong Un's image at home. But the harsh rhetoric from North Korea and rising animosity from the rivals that have followed UN sanctions over Pyongyang's nuclear test on 12 February have raised worries of a misjudgment leading to a clash.
In a joint statement by the government, political parties and organizations, North Korea said that it will deal with all matters involving South Korea according to "wartime regulations". It also warned it will retaliate against any provocations by the United States and South Korea without "any prior notice".
The divided Korean Peninsula is already in a technical state of war, because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty. But Pyongyang said it was scrapping the war armistice earlier this month.
South Korea's Unification Ministry released a statement saying the latest threat wasn't new, and was just a follow-up to Kim's earlier order to put troops on a high alert in response to annual U.S-South Korean military drills. Pyongyang sees those drills as rehearsals for an invasion; the allies call them routine and defensive.
In an indication that North Korea is not immediately considering starting a war, officials in Seoul said South Korean workers continued to cross the border to their jobs at a joint factory park in North Korea that's funded by South Koreans
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has warned his forces were ready "to settle accounts with the US" after two nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped dummy munitions on a South Korean island range as part of joint drills and returned to their base in Missouri.
North Korean state media later released a photo of Kim and his senior generals huddled in front of a map showing routes for envisioned strikes against cities on both American coasts. The map bore the title US Mainland Strike Plan.
At the main square in Pyongyang, tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for a ninety-minute mass rally in support of Kim's call to arms. Small North Korean warships, including patrol boats, conducted maritime drills off both coasts of North Korea near the border with South Korea earlier this week, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a briefing, but didn't provide details. The spokesman said South Korea's military was mindful of the possibility that North Korean drills could lead to an actual provocation. He said the South Korean and US militaries are watching closely for any signs of missile launch preparations in North Korea. He didn't elaborate.
Experts believe North Korea is years away from developing nuclear-tipped missiles that could strike the United States. Many say they've also seen no evidence that Pyongyang has long-range missiles that can hit the American mainland.
Still, there are fears of a localized conflict, such as a naval skirmish in disputed Yellow Sea waters. Such naval clashes have happened three times since 1999. There's also danger that such a clash could escalate. Seoul has vowed to hit back hard the next time it is attacked.
"The first strike of the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will blow up the US bases for aggression in its mainland and in the Pacific operational theatres including Hawai'i and Guam," the North said, in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. (DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.)
Pyongyang uses the US nuclear arsenal as a justification for its own push for nuclear weapons, saying that US nuclear firepower is a threat to its existence.

Rico says that of course it's a threat to their existence, the lack of which no one (except the North Koreans) will mind... (But that's a hell of a landing craft there.)