Just days after North Korea announced it had successfully tested a new and powerful kind of nuclear weapon, Missouri First Lady Sheena Chestnut Greitens is trying to help the Joplin community understand the implications of that act.

"There has been a tendency to dismiss North Korea as a crazy place run by a 33-year-old kid with a funny haircut," said Greitens, co-director of the Institute for Korean Studies and an assistant professor of political science at the University of Missouri-Columbia. "This is just a wacko place that Hollywood makes fun of, so do we really have to take it seriously? And I think now the answer is pretty clear: The answer is yes."

Greitens' presentation about North Korea on Thursday was offered as part of the annual themed semester at Missouri Southern State University. Speaking to a full house in Webster Hall, Greitens deconstructed North Korea as it relates to the United States, particularly in terms of its leadership and its desire to become a nuclear power.