It's still a bit worrying, though. What if they actually get things right for once? I'm not from US (Southeast Asia actually) but if they think they can threaten others like that they must have something going on...
I don't know. Never really liked dipping into topics like this since there are a lot of things to consider (but it seems that being an Economics freshman I need to expand my views).
I'd take them more seriously if it wasn't a constant barrage of vehement and violent rhetoric against the West and Friends that is never, ever backed up. I mean, we're talking about people who were caught trying to tunnel into South Korea and when they were caught, they claimed they were following a coal vein and they just painted a bunch of rocks black. They threatened to murder the shit out of everyone for laughing at their sad missile/ bottle rocket mishaps and as far as I can tell, they just kind of are sitting there, hoping people forgot they said anything so the next time they say something, it's super scary all over again.
Keep in mind, they pretty much have no economy to speak of due to the amount of crippling sanctions they've been enduring for pretty much decades and China, their only ally, is pretty much treating them the same way you treat your childhood friend who grew up to be a drunk asshole who's wasting his life away at the bars instead of trying to move on with his life. Their army isn't much more advanced than they were in the Korean war, which even then did pretty terribly when the international community stepped in. China did all the heavy lifting then, too.
The thing is, to do an attack on the scale they're threatening in a post 9/11 world is almost unthinkable, and they're vaguely threatening people going to see a movie as if the theater itself is in jeopardy. So, which theater? How are they going to do it? I mean, even if they DID launch an attack that somehow was completely missed by every intelligence agency in the US keeping their eyes out for signs, then odds are it wouldn't be the theater you were at.
Point I'm trying to make is we shouldn't live in fear of the bad guys, because that's pretty much all they're trying to do is intimidate us because they don't have the force to back it up so they rely on terror tactics. The guys who pulled off 9/11 hit the jackpot of overreaction because I promise you, for what little expense they paid to carry out those attacks has resulted in trillions spent in security and basically making everyone terrified of their neighbours and the government becoming more and more invasive against its citizens in the off chance something happened. Best way to combat these fuckwits is to carry on like they don't matter, because they really don't. Besides, even if a terror attack is going to happen, there's no way to know when and where it's going to be, and you have way more odds of being struck dead from something stupid (like, I don't know, butterfly allergies?) than die of a terror attack in a developed country.
If you want inspiration for how to deal with terror tactics, look no further than London during the Blitz. The citizens went about their day to day lives, only stopping to go into shelters periodically when an air raid was happening. Instead of demoralizing and crippling the city, it built a stronger community of people who refused to be cowed by some jackass Austrian dictator with a bad mustache. If North Korea does something, you can be sure that the US is going to enjoy the opportunity to demonstrate exactly why they spent 52% of the entire world's defense expenditure on their own forces against an enemy country with a conventional military of shitty outdated Soviet-era technology.
