"Reckless Provocation": North Korea Fires on South Korea

From CNN:

North Korea fired artillery toward its tense western sea border with South Korea on Tuesday, killing two South Korean marines, the South's Defense Ministry said.

Fifteen other South Korean soldiers were wounded, five of them seriously, defense officials said. Three civilians were injured in the attack.

About 100 rounds of artillery hit an inhabited South Korean island in the Yellow Sea after the North started firing about 2:30 p.m. local time.

Here are a few other details, including a comment from Zhu Feng, professor of international relations at Peking University, who describes the incident as:

"It's reckless provocation. They [North Korea] want to make a big bang and force the negotiations back into their favor. It's the oldest trick."

BBC News has this (with video of the smoking island).  I'm supposed to be working on research and whatnot today, but you know that now I'll end up hunting for news.  We all know North Korea is insane and aggressive, and fresh evidence of said fact is most unwelcome.  Anyway, Pyongyang is claiming that South Korea fired on them first -- a blatant falsehood that nobody believes.  I have to say, though, that it was only yesterday that Alessandra and I were talking about North Korea and how it is more dangerous than ever.  Then I turn on the morning news and ...

UPDATE:  Hmmmm?   And hmmmm?