Will North Korea conduct a nuclear or ballistic missile test in order to put meat on the bones of its escalating rhetoric? It’s an increasing possibility.

This week marked Pyongyang’s coordinated shift away from tentative compromise and back to the old blackmail and brinkmanship. First, we saw Kim Jong Un’s regime cut off a communications hotline with Seoul. Then, on Thursday, North Korea launched a scathing attack on the Trump administration’s diplomacy.