Risk in downplaying Pyongyang bombast THERE is a grave danger the world will underplay the risks posed by North Korea's astonishing, bellicose rhetoric and threats of the past week. Pyongyang has threatened to launch nuclear strikes against the US, to attack US and South Korean targets in South Korea, declared that it is "at war" with South Korea and is now threatening to close the joint industrial zone it runs with the south in Kaesong, which nets the impoverished North $US2 billion ($1.9bn) a year in hard currency.