North Korea sparked fears of World War 3 after a series of missile and nuclear tests as Kim Jong-un hopes to become a global nuclear superpower.
Van Jackson, a strategy fellow at the Center warned North Korea was “getting ready” and that explains the “calm before the storm”.
South Korea announced its own military is preparing for whatever the North could throw at it after its month-long winter training.
“Currently the North Korean troops are conducting ordinary field exercises. But our military is keeping a full readiness posture against the possibility of North Korea’s provocations,” a South Korea statement said.
Video, released in January, shows South Korean troops being put through their own winter training routine.
Troops can be seen dashing through the snow on skis while taking aim at training targets.
The South Korean soldiers also practice deadly hand-to-hand combat scenarios, with troops attacking one another with mock knives.
South Korea was also involved in a four-day training drill involving three US aircraft carrier as North Korea watched.
A rhetoric war between US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s despot leader Kim Jong-un has once again escalated after the American said Kim Jong-un was “short and fat”.
Toward the end of his Asia tour, Mr Trump tweet: “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old’, when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat’?”
In response, North Korea’s state media released a statement saying the US President deserved the death penalty for insulting Kim Jong-un.
The state-owned Rodong Sinmun newspaper said: “The worst crime for which he can never be pardoned is that he dared to malignantly hurt the dignity of the supreme leader.
“He should know that he is just a hideous criminal sentenced to death by the Korean people.”