1 The United States and South Korea are on high alert amid signs that North Korea is planning a possible missile test.
2 The preparations come after a string of threats from that country’s new, untested supreme leader, Kim Jong-un.
3 While the North Koreans do not have the capacity to strike the U.S. mainland, the medium-range weapons do have the potential to reach U.S. military bases on the Pacific island of Guam.
4 North Korea has also threatened its neighbors South Korea and Japan, both strong U.S. allies.
5 North Korea has been at odds with the United States and South Korea for more than 60 years since the Korean War, when the United States fought on the side of the South.
6 There were some hopes, however, that relations between the two countries could improve after leader Kim Jong-il died last year and his son, Kim Jong-un, took command of the country.
7 The current leader, who is just 30 years old, had been educated in Switzerland, and maintains a love of American basketball.
8 All those hopes are dashed now.
9 Kim Jong-un is threatening to restart all his nuclear reactors to expand the nuclear arsenal.
10 Missiles were moved into position close to the border zone between North and South Korea.
11 The North Korean news agency claimed that a 'state of war' had been declared with South Korea, and promised to 'target and dissolve mainland United States, Hawaii and Guam, and United States military based in South Korea,' and burn the Blue House, South Korea's presidential palace, to the ground.
12 South Koreans are taking these provocations lightly.
13 Reports said people in the capital city of Seoul were acting normally, even though North Korea warned tourists and other foreigners that they should leave South Korea.
14 Living next to a hostile, nuclear-armed neighbor has taught the South Koreans to tell the difference between real threats and dismiss much of North Korea's bluster.
15 The newly elected South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, promised to respond with military action if attacked.
16 President Park's personal history is intertwined with the story Korea, a country that was split in two after World War II.
17 Her father Park Chung-hee was a general who ruled South Korea for a time until his assassination by North Korean spies.
18 Despite this, President Park ran for office on promises that she would help improve the relationship between North and South.
19 ## The Ruling Family  But negotiating with North Korea is never easy.
20 The ruling family of North Korea is known for its bizarre and unpredictable behavior.
21 Kim Il-sung, the current leader’s grandfather, led the country until his death from a heart attack in 1994.
22 He ruled the country and its people so tightly that the North Korean calendar begins on his birthday.
23 His son Kim Jong-il took over the reins.
24 It was Kim Jong-il who oversaw the first North Korean nuclear detonation and encouraged the development of the nuclear program as an essential component of the North Korean state's survival.
25 Kim Jong-il was also a diehard movie fan who is believed to have kidnapped a famous South Korean actress and director to force them to make a Godzilla-like movie for the North Korean people to enjoy.
26 North Korea does not have the money for its own Hollywood film industry -- or for any other industries at all.
27 The country depended on the Soviet Union for its military and farming aid, but when that country broke apart in the 1990s, forming Russia and other republics, that lifeline was lost.
28 North Korea had to turn to China for support.
29 This period of instability occurred at the same time as a devastating famine.
30 Instead of using what money it had to provide food for its people, North Korea decided to spend more on nuclear weapons, in the hope that its bargaining power with other countries would improve.
31 With greater bargaining power, North Korea stands to get more food aid, money and attention from world leaders.
32 For North Korea, 'bargaining' with the international community means exchanging angry warnings and making baseless threats, such as its promise to turn Seoul into a “sea of fire.” In March, the North released a video of North Korean military might.
33 The four-minute show included a shot of the White House and the U.S. Capitol building with targets trained over them, as though they were in the sight of a missile.
34 In reality, North Korea’s missiles could not even travel as far as Hawaii, let alone the American mainland.
35 Still, even though North Korea’s angry words may all be for show, its neighbors are taking no chances.
36 South Korean troops increased their alert levels.
37 CNN reports that Japan has moved two anti-missile systems into the heart of Tokyo; they are pointed in the direction of North Korea.
38 The North Korean capital of Pyongyang is just 800 miles from Tokyo, or roughly the distance between Chicago and New York.
39 A missile fired from North Korea could reach Japan in five to 10 minutes.
40 The U.S. Navy moved two anti-missile ships closer to the Korean Peninsula to monitor any missile launchings in the North.
41 Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, who is in charge of the U.S. military, said, “North Korea has been, with its bellicose rhetoric, its action ... skating very close to a dangerous line.'
42 Hagel was asked whether U.S. citizens should be concerned about the threats.
43 He replied that the United States has the capacity to defend its people and those of its allies from any military action North Korea may take.

The preparations come after a string of threats from that country ’ s new , untested supreme leader , Kim Jong - un .
new ,
How new is the leader?