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While the situation in the Far East may not match the daily newsflashes from the Middle East in terms of human beings killed or maimed in armed conflict, were war to break out between the US and North Korea the effects would be catastrophic.

Where the posturing of the secretive totalitarian regime is concerned, the world has certainly been here before. Political commentators have noted these moments of tension are cyclical. Although a ceasefire in 1953 ended hostilities between North and South Korea after a three-year war, no peace treaty was ever signed. This has meant Pyongyang regularly rattles sabres, its outward-facing belligerence often seen as a distraction for its beleaguered population (during the 1990s a widespread famine resulted in the deaths of upwards of 3.5 million North Koreans.) The North has used more traditional 'cold war' scare tactics in the past, broadcasting encrypted messages - purportedly to its agents on the other side of the 38th Parallel - although that ceased in 2000 after a historic summit between the two divided nations. These transmissions have resumed. The more worrying factor of the current face-off between Pyongyang and Washington is the arrival on the world stage of Donald Trump, a president as self-centred and egotistical as Kim Jong Un, and who relishes being in the international spotlight. Unlike the previous US leader Barack Obama, who exercised restraint in the face of North Korea's hyperbole, Trump is far more willing to match paranoid threats with his own rhetoric.

There is certainly no hint the US would pursue another policy of regime change after the chaos in Iraq and Libya. On this occasion its enemies have much bigger weapons, albeit that their missile tests sometimes seem more of a nuisance to Korean fishermen than anything for South Korea or Japan to worry about.

We have no way of knowing the extent to which Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un are bluffing or being deadly serious. And let's hope we never get to find out.

A psychological war between North Korea and the US and has already begun. With the US displaying its tough approach, neither Donald Trump nor Kim Jong-un are backing down as the risk of a military conflict between two of the world’s most unpredictable leaders grows. North Korea says it is 'on the brink of nuclear war' as the United States stages military drills with South Korea. The country labeled the United States a 'blackmailing gangster' holding North Korea at 'knifepoint' by supporting its enemies and imposing economic sanctions.

North Korea regularly threatens to destroy the United States and says it will continue to test its nuclear and missile programmes to counter perceived US aggression.

Trump declared that the “status quo in North Korea is unacceptable” and said the country’s growing nuclear capabilities pose a “real threat.” Trump, speaking to Reuters on Thursday, said he wanted to resolve the crisis peacefully, possibly through the use of new economic sanctions, although a military option was not off the table.

"There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea," Trump said in an interview at the Oval Office.

Meanwhile, as long as the US applies pressure, North Korea will continue to strengthen its nuclear and missile capabilities. Even so, unless the US risks an attack, North Korea will not start a war by attacking the US or South Korea. environment ministry spokesman, Jacek Krzemiński, says that there is no commercial incentive because the wood is only good for firewood, and the costs of logging and transport make it unprofitable to sell the wood on.