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Bear in mind that, as NPR's Louisa Lim has said, North Korea's regime is skilled at making threats. And, fortunately, the most ominous of those threats have not been followed by action in recent decades.

With those caveats in mind, here are Thursday's developments in the latest round of provocative moves by the communist state. From Beijing, Louisa tells our Newscast Desk that:

— South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin says North Korea has moved a missile with considerable range to its east coast. Kim told the South Korean parliament Thursday that the North Korean missile is not capable of hitting the United States. He said the missile could have been moved for testing or for drills. So far, according to Kim, there's no sign of military mobilizations that could suggest preparations for a full-scale conflict.

— North Korea has said it may shut down a joint industrial zone within its borders where companies from the South get some goods produced. And for a second day, South Koreans have been blocked from entering the Kaesong industrial zone.

Wednesday's headlines included:

— North Korea's Brinksmanship: Same As Before, More Dangerous Or Both?

— 'Best Jobs In North Korea' Pay $62 A Month; Now They're Diplomatic Pawns

— Responding To North Korea, U.S. Sends Missile Defenses To Guam

— Amid Threats, N. Korea's Neighbors Rethink Defense Policies

Robert Mueller became FBI director just days before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Since then, he's been the U.S. government's indispensable man when it comes to national security.

But Mueller's term has expired, and the clock is ticking on an unprecedented extension that Congress gave him two years ago.

The first time the Obama White House thought about a replacement for Mueller, back in 2011, officials threw up their hands and wound up begging him to stay. Congress passed a special law to allow it. Then Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa put his foot down.

"Extending a director's term was not a fly-by-night decision," Grassley said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. "It also puts the president on notice to begin the process of selecting and nominating a new FBI director earlier than the last attempt."

Behind the scenes, that process is well under way.

The FBI director serves a 10-year term — designed to give that person insulation from partisan politics. But whomever President Obama chooses could become a big part of his legacy.

The administration approached D.C. federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland, who said he didn't want the job, according to two sources familiar with the exchange. Other possible candidates, such as former Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, recently started lucrative jobs in the private sector after spending decades in public service.

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The middle-income housing projects Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village sit on an 80-acre patch of Lower Manhattan. In 2006, they came to epitomize the lunatic excess of the housing boom when their 11,232 apartments sold for $5.4 billion. They were bought at a competitive auction by Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty.

Charles Bagli covered the purchase for The New York Times. In his new book, Other People's Money, he tells the story of how the biggest ever real estate deal came together and then spectacularly came apart. Standing in the park at the center of Stuyvesant Town, Bagli tells NPR's Robert Siegel that these housing projects provided a place where people of moderate means could set down roots.

"There's first-, second- and third-generation families living here," he says, "and it was sort of a quiet oasis and, most importantly, an affordable oasis in an increasingly expensive Manhattan."

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What is the essence of a life? Is it our career accomplishments? Our devotion to friends and family? Our secret little talents and foibles? Is it, perhaps, our killer recipe for beef stroganoff?

That question underlies a controversy burning up the twitterverse in recent days over an obituary of Yvonne Brill published by The New York Times. Brill was a pioneering American rocket scientist in the 1940s — at a time when "leaning in" meant bending over the stove to prepare dinner for hubby. And yet, in its original form (it was later edited), the Times' obituary led off with a quite different description of Brill. It began:

"She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. "The world's best mom," her son Matthew said."