North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament endorsed a plan to expand its nuclear weapons program, while South Korea’s leader promised a strong and immediate response to any military provocation from Pyongyang.

South Korean President Park-Geun-hye told her generals that she considers the threats from the North to be “very serious”. 

“If the North attempts any provocation against our people and country,” Park said to the military brass, “you must respond strongly at the first contact with them without any political consideration.”

That’s a dramatic reversal from South Korea’s usual policy of brushing off North Korean rhetoric.  Park’s predecessor and fellow conservative faced a lot of internal criticism for failing to decisively respond to the North Korean artillery attack of a Southern island in 2010.  Four people were killed in that barrage.

Meanwhile, the North Korean ruling “Workers’ Party” passed a resolution calling for nuclear forces to be “expanded and beefed up qualitatively and quantitatively".

So far, the US is closely monitoring the situation and says there are no North Korean actions that back up the rhetoric.  And in fact, the bellicose threats seem to be dying down as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is turning his attentions to economic matters, promoting an economic technocrat, Pak Pong-ju, to a key post.