Bellicosity and dire threats are nothing new from Pyongyang, and most South Koreans, having lived with North Korea for 70 years, have grown blasé. But the gravity of the current situation is underlined by the fact that North Korea offered these last-minute talks on Saturday afternoon - just two hours before Kim Jong-un’s own deadline for military action expired – and by the seniority of the North Korean delegation. General Hwang Pyong-so, the director of the General Political Bureau of the North Korean army, and so the de facto head of the North ‘s Korean People’s Army is seen as one of Kim Jong-un’s most trusted lieutenants. The second negotiator is Kim Yang-gon, Pyongyang’s point man on inter-Korean affairs. The negotiations also seem to be taking place in good faith. The marathon duration of the talks – which have extended into the early hours on two successive nights – are encouraging, as neither side has stormed out of the negotiating room.