I find what is taking place in Korea to be extremely distressing. And of course, one cannot determine the thoughts and motives of a madman. So how can you build a response or model the future based on a leader like Kim, who has contempt for the welfare of his own people.
STRATFOR, to whom I have subscribed for a few years now, explains (paraphrasing and taking liberties) that Kim’s son, who is the next ’emperor’ of NORK is consolidating his power by staging an artillery attack on South Korea, hoping for a military response presumably, that will force the military to look to him for leadership, once again showing his profound contempt for the lives of his citizens.
There are lots of possible other explanations ranging from a desire to actually use one of their nuclear weapons, a cover for Iranian activities hoping to divert US attention and military assets away from the Gulf, and hoping for a south Korean military response to use as background for one of Kim’s Musical theatre extravaganzas Kim is so fond of. Nothing like the 1812 overture with real artillery especially if it is raining down on your own starved peasants.
In any case, here is a video showing some of what happened.
Stratfor is good but ignores the way China is pulling the strings on their North Korean puppet, they are using North Korea to funnel weapons to the nations and groups that will work to destabilize the West, especially the US but including all of Europe. They are doing this to become the big boy on the block as far as the Orient goes, and hopefully becoming the dominate super power in the world. Remember the missile fired from off the California coast? It was a Chinese missile and they were probably telling us that no place in the US is safe from their missiles.