The blood-curdling threats against the South emanating from North Korea are all too familiar, but ironically the repeat performance only underlines the North’s weakness.

The front-page picture in Korean newspapers told the story of the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye, looking frosty and gazing in the opposite direction, ignored Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe standing next to her at the Oct. 7 APEC meeting in Bali. The two leaders barely exchanged greetings, according to a Japanese news dispatch, and kept their contact to a minimum, “only for a few seconds.”