A preview of one potential scenario for a Middle East including a nuclear-armed Iran is being provided just a few time zones away, in North Korea.

There, U.S. officials, both Democrat and Republican, for decades did little in reaction to North Korean leaders’ combination of saber rattling and hollow claims they were not developing nuclear weapons.

But now, Pyongyang has nuclear devices, along with medium-range missiles.

On Monday, during ceremonies commemorating the end of fighting in the Korean War, North Korean Gen. Pak Yong Sik said that arsenal means “the United States is no longer a source of threat and fear for us … we are the very source of fear for it.”

North Korea is prepared for a war in which “there would be no one left to sign a surrender document,” the general added.

Iranian leaders would love to be able to add such talk to their current slogan: “Death to America.”