Tensions on the Korean peninsula: Kim blows up again RUMOURS of fatherhood, and the thrill of having Dennis Rodman, a 51-year-old American basketball has-been, as a new best friend, have done little to mellow Kim Jong Un, North Korea's young leader. Once again relations between his family's regime and the outside world have returned to the dangerous script of nuclear provocation, sanctions and threats of war. On March 6th Kyodo, a Japanese news agency, reported that camouflage netting was being thrown over buses and trains in Pyongyang in readiness for conflict. A day earlier the regime reheated old threats, as America proposed a resolution to the UN Security Council, stiffening sanctions against North Korea for its third nuclear test on February 12th. It said it would scrap the 1953 armistice agreement with America that ended the Korean war (did it forget that it had already scrapped it, in 2009?). It cut off a hotline with American troops in South Korea. And it once again threatened nuclear attack. Its anger appeared to have been provoked as much by land, sea and air drills involving American and South Korean forces near the Korean peninsula, which are due to intensify from March 11th, as by the proposed sanctions. Yonhap, a Seoul-based news agency, said South Korea is bracing itself for rival North Korean exercises next week. In a sign of escalating tension, South Korea's army said on March 6th that it might attack the North's commanders if provoked - a rare threat directed at the regime's top brass. Sanctions, which America hopes will be approved this week, are aimed at further curbing the North's nuclear programme. They will put a stronger focus on financial transactions between North Korea and the rest of the world, including what some suspect are "suitcases of cash" crossing from North Korea into China. They will step up monitoring of its foreign emissaries suspected of arms negotiations, and list for the first time the goodies said to be coveted by Mr Kim's inner circle, such as yachts, jewellery, luxury vehicles and racing cars. Previously, it was up to each state to draw up a list of its own. And the resolution will oblige states to check North Korean transport vessels suspected of ferrying contraband. UN sanctions imposed after North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006 have been leaky. Since then the regime's nuclear and ballistic-missile programmes have advanced, and it is believed to have diversified its nuclear fuel beyond its dwindling stock of plutonium by enriching uranium. Though China has backed the past three sets of sanctions, bilateral trade between the two countries has soared. America sent the current draft after three weeks of talks involving China, and some American experts still think China would only enforce it half-heartedly. John Delury of Yonsei University in Seoul is particularly sceptical about hopes that the Chinese will intercept any cash crossing the North Korean border. Whatever way the language of the sanctions is tweaked, it's an implementation issue, and China's not going to turn up the heat that much. On March 7th the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong daily, quoted a senior Chinese diplomat as contradicting reports that a tentative deal had been struck between America and China. Some Chinese analysts, however, say they expect strong enforcement. Jin Canrong of Renmin University said North Korea's "recent misbehaviour" had strengthened the voices of those in China wanting the government to take a tougher line against its unruly nuclear-armed ally. Sometimes, after North Korea and its foes have ramped up the rhetoric, comes a thaw in tensions. But not always. In 2010 the North carried out two deadly attacks against South Korean targets. With the young Mr Kim flexing his muscles in Pyongyang and a new South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, in Seoul, the risks of miscalculation are heightened.