By "threat", I mean they have enough WMD's that nobody directly invades and attacks them, they have some geopolitical allies across the globe like the Axis, they actually are a stable state that will lasts for decades like North Korea,but stronger and scarier, etc. At most they could become a third superpower, at least they are a regional power that despite horrendous human rights abuse or other ghastliness, nobody not even the USA wants to touch it ,at least too much, by the present day. Ideally, they shouldn't be an American or Soviet ally, but they could start out as one before spiraling into a beast of a nation as their control over it erodes over time.