In recent weeks, the rumors and rhetoric swirling around North Korea and its nuclear capabilities have grown significantly.

While the country has long been known for its overblown posturing and propaganda, new evidence suggests that — as Fox News notes — “tensions on the Korean Peninsula have boiled over.”

Despite clear U.S. warnings to put an end to its nuclear weapons program, satellites have shown increased activity at the country’s nuclear sites, while North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un has said that his intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program has reached its “final stage” of preparation.

Reportedly satellite imagery shows renewed activity at #NorthKorea nuclear test site – 38North – https://t.co/EOnlELDYjQ pic.twitter.com/mNKs5Lyj6n — Christophe Barraud? (@C_Barraud) April 22, 2017

The mounting tensions have not gone unnoticed by international leaders, including President Donald Trump.

On Monday, Trump urged further action from the United Nations Security Council, saying the “real threat” of North Korea could no longer be ignored.

As he told council ambassadors during a White House gathering:

“The council must be prepared to impose additional and stronger sanctions on North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile programs. This is a real threat to the world, whether we want to talk about it or not. North Korea is a big world problem and it’s a problem that we have to finally solve. People put blindfolds on for decades and now it’s time to solve the problem.”

Over the course of Sunday and Monday, Trump also spoke directly with several international leaders regarding North Korea, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe:

https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/856556989718986752

In Japan — where sales of nuclear shelters and air purifiers have reportedly “surged” over the past several weeks — Prime Minister Abe addressed the topic head-on.

As he said following his phone call with President Trump:

“The North Korean nuclear and missile problem is an extremely serious security threat to not only the international community but also our country.”

Despite the presence of a U.S. carrier group — conducting drills with Japanese destroyers in the western Pacific — lying just beyond its front door, North Korea has remained openly defiant.

In addition to detaining another American citizen on Saturday, bringing the total to three, North Korean state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun wrote on Monday:

The United States should not run amok and should consider carefully any catastrophic consequence from its foolish military provocative act.

Issuing warnings of “an all-out war, a nuclear war” with “U.S. imperialists,” the paper added that the only thing that the country’s “aggressors” should expect is “dead bodies.”