fret #2

the Japan Times Onlineにあった記事の見出しから英語表現を採り上げます。fret about ~は「（…のことで）いらいら［やきもき］する；思い悩む」（『プログレッシブ英和中辞典』小学館）という意味の表現で，過去にもfretの他動詞用法がブログで採り上げられています。
cf. http://d.hatena.ne.jp/A30/20101003/1286082578
そして，このfretを英英辞書で調べるとto worry about something, especially when there is no need（LDOCE）とありました。このことからfretには「必要もない（かもしれない）のに思い悩む」という意味があることがわかり，記事第2パラグラフのThough it remains a highly unlikely scenarioという箇所に当てはまります。（Koyamamoto）

Japan has real reasons to fret about North Korean nukes
It’s easy to write off North Korea’s threats to strike the mainland United States with a nuclear-tipped missile as bluster: It has never demonstrated the capability to deploy a missile that could reach the Pacific island of Guam, let alone the East Coast.
But what about Japan?
Though it remains a highly unlikely scenario, Japanese officials have long feared that if North Korea ever decides to play its nuclear card, it has not only the means but several potential motives for launching an attack on Tokyo or major U.S. military installations on Honshu. And while a conventional missile attack is far more likely, Tokyo takes Pyongyang’s nuclear rhetoric seriously.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/04/09/national/japan-has-real-reasons-to-fret-about-north-korean-nukes/#.UWQ1oo7QVqM