<< they are telling the US that if we threaten them in any way our inland wont be safe... >>
That's like getting a threat from Gary Coleman to kick your ass. One naval air carrier group and a MEU would probably be sufficient to take on North Korea at this point. Juche as a political philosophy has reduced them to the point of paleolithic hunter-gatherers, we'd have to bomb them forward to the stone age at this point. Their army, although large in size theoretically, is so pathetically equiped (not to mention malnourished like the rest of the country), that unless they were invading a McDonald's, i don't think they'd even be capable of meaningful military aggression.... the rank and file (and probably most of the senior leadership) would tell the Central Committee to go f**k themselves.