what's the sense of the people you're getting in seoul? >> reporter: it's two-fold. one is that you're right, people who live in south korea, they're used to being told that they're going to be burnt down into a sea of fire. that's something that's normally said out of north korea. they're numb to it. so there isn't any sort of panic or extreme alarm from people of south korea. here's what is different. what is different is that the threats from pyongyang are now coming from that young unpredictable leader, he is untested. we simply don't know him. the rules are very different. we have a president in south korea who is a woman, also untested. the first woman to lead a country that has been traditionally very male oriented. so the players are different. but also, the threats are different. they have been rapid-fire, day after day after day. there's been a racheting up. there has been a rapid-fire progression of them. back now what appears to be the good old days of kim jong-il, they were a little more spaced out so it's a bit more