Well, for me as a reporter, I have to cover a story every day so I guess it really matters for me, but for ordinary South Koreans I don’t think that they really care until they do have a realistic sense or signs of some kind of war looming up.

For example, if there are signs of a possible war on the Korean Peninsula, including possible evacuation of American citizens out of South Korea; and larger troop movement along the border with North Korea; and maybe the arrival of a massive number of American warships toward South Korea. I mean, when people see any of those signs I guess they will panic and they will start stocking up on food, etc.

What’s the view in Seoul or in South Korea generally of the way Donald Trump is handling this?

A lot of this anxiety and uncertainty and news about North Korea these days is actually driven by President Trump. Mr. Trump is being seen as someone unlike other previous American presidents. Mr. Trump is seen as unpredictable a little bit. You don’t really know what Mr. Trump is going to do. And he says one thing one day, and he’s likely to say another thing the next day. And so people here have a feeling that they can’t really understand Mr. Trump and what the U.S. policy on North Korea is under President Trump.

How do you think this this back and forth will end?

Nobody really knows because South Koreans, they don’t really know Mr. Trump, and Mr. Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, is new as well. He’s someone people are still trying to figure out. So there is uncertainty there.

But many South Koreans believe that all this is part of a pattern. I mean the tension has been ebbing and flowing on the Korean Peninsula in a repeating cycle. This thing comes and goes with no obvious solution. This crisis has been going on for decades and is something Koreans are very used to. So I guess a lot of Koreans are thinking that, well, this is one of those months where we live with a lot of tension. But hopefully it will subside.