The danger must also energize powerful interest groups and thereby stimulate the media. Hyperbole by foreign leaders helps inflate the danger. The pattern is unmistakable. South Korea magnifies the threat from the North every chance it gets. This refrain ensures the maintenance of the U.S. nuclear umbrella and 37,000 troops deployed in the South precisely what Seoul desires.
Unfriendly states can also magnify a danger in order to gain attention and the response they seek.
North Korea has raised this to a fine art. Upon a suspension pledge by the North, the U.S. began lifting sanctions and normalizing relations. Soon after, North Korea even received an increase in U.S. food aid as a reward for allowing an inspection of a possible underground nuclear facility at Kumchang-ni. North Korea's menacing foreign policy brought home the bacon. Unfriendly Cuba got Washington's attention in 1996 by shooting down two planes piloted by anti-Castro Cubans.