North Korea rhetoric appears at “end point,” Pacific general says

The latest North Korean crisis may finally be over, according to the top U.S. Army officer in the Pacific.

"It appears the rhetoric has died down in recent days," Lt. Gen. Francis Wiercinski, commander of U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) said, while visiting the Pentagon on Monday.

"We’re hoping that that cycle of provocation has come to its end point."

Wiercinski said the U.S. is not yet withdrawing the THAAD anti-ballistic missile battery deployed to Guam, but he indicated the region already may have returned to quiet.

"I’ve seen this for 34 years," he said. "Cyclical provocation from the grandfather to the father, now the son. It’s nothing that I wouldn’t have not expected."

This time, however, Wiercinski said he took it "very seriously" due to the nuclear threat that followed North Korea’s demonstrated space launch last year. The Pentagon worries the boost-phase technology required to put an object into space is really part of North Korea’s pursuit of developing intercontinental ballistic missiles.