(CNN) -- Hyperbolic North Korean threats of war are not new. What is new is the intensity and persistence of those threats this time around. Add to that an untested 29-year-old leader who is suddenly a four-star general with lots to prove. How does this end? Consider these three possibilities: 1. What Kim Jong Un hopes:  North Korean threats continue to escalate. Pyongyang renews earlier threats to transfer its "nuclear deterrent capability" to third parties in the Middle East and declares South Korean waters west of the peninsula an open fire zone. The South Korean stock market plummets. Chinese leaders begin to panic about instability on their border. Washington is desperate to set aside the North Korea problem while dealing with a parallel crisis in Iran. The North proposes negotiations on a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War, but only if international sanctions imposed on the regime after their previous nuclear and missile tests are suspended.
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Michael Green: North Korea more threatening than usual; three scenarios may play out
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1. Nuke threats grow; regime will get U.S. to lift sanctions; regime returns to same tactics
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2. China will turn on North, cut it off; Kim will lose power; North and South reunite sans nukes
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3. Kim will fire on South; U.S. will get involved; North will fall; Japan, South Korea ravaged
Those talks move at a glacial pace because the @placeholder sees nuclear weapons as its only means of regime survival.