North Korea rattles sabers, demands attention, candy

[ECSNorway]

I seriously doubt they have the mindset required for realistic training exercises (i.e. where senior officers get humiliated by junior ones).

You'd be correct on this. Korea, like most Chinese-influenced cultures, is still very much of the Royalty-vs-Peasantry feudal mindset.
Argument from Authority trumps everything else, a junior who humiliated his senior that way would be expected to kill himself to expunge the shame, rather than anyone bothering to see what he did right and the senior did wrong.
In their minds, the senior did what was right, because he was the senior, the junior is automatically in the wrong. Facts are far less important than the relative social rank of the persons involved.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.