North Korea's rhetoric was reaching fever pitch again. Unused roads and rail links to the South had just been blown up in a spectacular display of belligerence. The North had labeled the South "a hostile state" and its leaders as "gangsters" and "scum.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and US President-elect Donald Trump discussed the presence of North Korean troops in Russia during a phone conversation that comes amid growing concern about Pyongyang’s deepening military cooperation with Moscow.

Already, the rumors are severely hurting his approval ratings and providing political munition to his political rivals.