Do you think North and South Korea firing shots at each other's boats today is the start to World War III?

No, it has been happening off and on for years. China is getting pretty tired of N Korea as a client state, and will quite likely tell Pyongyang to knock it off if it ever gets dire.

Not likely. The North huffs and puffs to crutch up its glaring inferiority complex. It’s just another round of “pay attention to ME!”

Nah, they’re just showing off, like newborn twins grappling over the best tit to suck on.

Storm in a tea cup. Nobody cares.

Oh joy, this stuff again. Frankly, at this point, if North and South Korea resume their war (and that’s still a fairly large if), I doubt North Korea will be receiving significant assistance from anyone.

I agree with everyone above that it’s probably a tempest in a teapot, but I do wonder whether there might be some idiot lurking about with his finger on The Bomb.

No. But if the North Korean leader changes his haircut then yes. :)

This doesn’t signal anything else except that North Korea likes to perpetuate their behavior of antagonism and stupidity. And although it might not have happened lately, it’s not just firing shots at each others boats. There have been several incidents that have occurred across the 38th parallel right in the middle and in the close vicinity of Panmunjom.

No one, not even China, is going to stick their neck out for Best Korea, so, no.

@Dan_Lyons Do you think the Crimea incident and the Chinese oil rig are the start to World War III? ~

I don’t know @Mimishu1995. I sure hope not. If it is, you hotfoot yourself out of that part of the country. I’m sure any Fluther Jelly would put you up for a month or two until you get your own place. If they don’t you are welcome here.

There is a possibility, but probably not.

So now the Chinese have actually sunk a Vietnamese ship.

The escalation is continuing.

China and Vietnam relations have been edgy for a long time

And back to the OP, I talked to my mother – who is Korean – about North Korea and South Korea trading shots. She stated that a lot of Koreans believe that South Korea fired first to create an incident to draw national attention away from the recent ferry tragedy and back towards a patriotic cause as the current party in power would like to stay in power as local elections are taking place on June 4th. And in a country as small as South Korea with it’s population density, local government officials can hold a fair amount of sway on the national level.