The fat little dictator of North Korea: "Duh, hey everyone, look at me." What a stupid fucking asshole.

North Korea to deploy troops into former inter-Korean cooperation zones

North Korea has announced it will send troops into sites previously used to foster cooperation with South Korea a day after demolishing an inter-Korean liaison office.

Why it matters: North Korea is wiping out all remnants of the detente with South Korea that began in 2018, and taking dramatic symbolic steps to signal a new more hostile era in relations. Pyongyang has also said it will resume military exercises and reestablish guard posts near the heavily fortified border.

Behind the scenes: Experts generally view this as a play for leverage from Kim Jong-un’s regime, which has expressed fury over America's unwillingness to loosen sanctions and is believed to be facing a severe economic downturn amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

North Korea has also expressed outrage over propaganda leaflets sent across the border from the South.

Kim Yo-jong, the sister of Kim Jong-un, has been taking a central role in the rhetorical offensive from Pyongyang.

What to watch: Nuclear talks are likely to remain on ice this year, with an election approaching in the U.S.

The Kim regime’s goals include weakening the U.S.-South Korea alliance and reminding Washington “that North Korea is still a force to be reckoned with,” said Glyn Davies, who served as a special representative for North Korea during the Obama administration, in a recent International Crisis Group webinar.

U.S. intelligence says North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear program since President Trump’s two summits with Kim, which did not yield a deal on denuclearization.

Flashback: South Korean President Moon Jae-in, an advocate of warmer ties with North Korea, also held a series of summits with Kim in 2018.

Just two years later, one symbol of the friendlier relations those three meetings seemed to signal has been exploded. Others are now being actively militarized.