My reaction too, JWin. Uh-oh.
Kit, I'd like to think that saner heads will prevail this time. Really, though, does anyone outside of the DPRK understand what is going on there? And yes, the thought that those clowns don't know what they're doing, they actually believe their own twisted rhetoric, has occurred. Uh-oh indeed.
Will China get involved? As long as the Americans show some restraint, I seriously doubt it. Too much to lose, too little to gain for both of them. Things have changed for the big guys in the past 60 years.
OTOH, Kimster did ride his Hogwarts Express to BJ not long ago, so maybe something is up. I'm thinking about that article in the Economist that CP linked to just a week ago, and the recent spate of arrests of anyone-who-so-much-as-makes-unwanted-bird-noises. There may be more to the current domestic political harmony than we know. Americans aren't the only ones who like a little war to keep the plebians in line.