The following article is the twelfth in a multipart series by Taylor Darby, a pseudonym for a foreign diplomat that worked in Pyongyang for an extended period of time before being forced to leave in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Views expressed in columns are exclusively the author’s own and do not represent those of NK News.

The tension between the U.S. and North Korea in 2017 could be felt on the ground in Pyongyang.

While the people of DPRK and government officials are generally used to the sort of charged statements that abounded at the time, in this