While publicly lashing North Korea for its assorted press releases threatening military action, the US seems to be making its own provocations in the region much more specific, adding yet more naval forces to the Korean coast to go with the dramatic addition of nuclear-capable airpower to the peninsula.
A second guided-missile destroyer has been send to the Korean coast, the USS John McCain, with reports that a third, the USS Decatur, is also being positioned in the western Pacific as part of the operation.
The US is also deploying the X-band radar, a self-propelled floating radar system, close to the Korean coast to “track” North Korean missile launches, of which there have been none.
North Korea has limited its own escalation of this fight to statements issued through their national newspaper, which has the distinct advantage of being cheap and not requiring them to even be able to theoretically do what they’re threatening to do. The Obama Administration, on the other hand, is committing to large amounts of additional spending going forward for its own posturing, which seems to be having the same effect.
Anything that will divert their attention from bothering Iran and Syria.