South Korea says North Korea's military looks as if it's getting ready for a fight. The North accuses the South of warmongering.
On the tense Korean Peninsula, there is always the chance conflict could erupt anytime. But it is also possible that the latest saber-rattling is just another scare tactic by two rivals who have appeared on the verge of bloodshed too many times to count since their war ended 42 years ago.Analysts spin scenarios ranging from peaceful reunification between the capitalist South and communist North to all-out war that could leave millions dead.
What does seem certain is that the North is deteriorating almost by the day, its already crumbling economy demolished even further by recent floods.
Will the North be pragmatic enough to realize it needs to show an attitude change to get the aid and foreign investment it desperately needs? Or will it lash out like a wounded animal?
U.S. and South Korean military officials have been warning for months about the possibility of some kind of incursion by the North, which wants to prove the armistice system in place since the end of the war doesn't work. It wants direct peace talks with Washington that would snub South Korea, which it calls a U.S. puppet.
There are concerns that if the North is seriously considering a tangle with the South, where 37,000 U.S. troops are based and backup from Japan is nearby, its window of opportunity is narrowing steadily.
The North's 1.2 million-strong military is the world's fifth-largest and by all accounts is vigorously trained and indoctrinated to hate the South. Along with the showpiece capital, Pyongyang, it gets a vast share of the North's resources - to the point where peasants in the countryside reportedly survive on a bowl of gruel per day.
But the food and fuel stocks are believed to be critically low and still dwindling. Food shortages have become chronic.
The military is dependent on aging Soviet weaponry, for which the North has no money to buy spare parts. Its MiG fighter jets and tanks might not be up to a real fight in a couple of years, although a home-grown industry is producing Scud-type missiles.
The other possibility is that the North might be putting on its most ferocious face in hopes the West will see appeasement - in the form of huge amounts of aid - as better than war.
It is a tactic the North has used repeatedly, most recently in persuading Washington to promise two reactors, fuel until they're built and better relations in exchange for dismantling a nuclear program suspected of weapons development.
So far, the international community hasn't exactly jumped to help since the North asked for $491 million in aid for the flood damage. Only about $14 million has been promised so far.
The North has shown no signs of change so far, though it finds itself walking an ever more fragile tightrope.
Even as it seeks help and beckons multinational giants like Coca-Cola and General Motors, it is trying to keep its people from finding out just how bad things are - and it's claiming that its policy of self-reliance endures.