Open war in Korea?

I just became aware, and automatically deeply scared, of the new military escalation at the Korean demarcation line, which has taken at least two lives. 

For what I could gather so far, the combats began, in relation to the naval exercises that South Korea was making near the North Korean coastline, at the island of Yeonpyeong home base of South Korean 2nd Fleet. North Korea had asked that these drills would not take place but Seoul ignored Pyongyang's demands.

Yeonpyeong is labeled with the number 3 (from Wikipedia)

There are conflicting versions on how the combats began. According to North Korea, the shelling of the military facilities at Yeonpyeong island, killing 2 soldiers, injuring 17 more and also two civilians, was a retaliation for South Korean artillery fire towards its coast. South Korea rejects this version and claims they were shelling only in westward direction (i.e. towards open sea). 

South Korea is already retaliating with air attacks, the extent of which is not really known yet. 

The armed conflict could easily escalate into open war, as both states are technically at war and they enjoy the protection of opposed great powers: the USA and Japan on one side and China on the other.

Fidel Castro warned some months ago that the USA was planning a new Korean War. He also warned of an invasion of Iran. I have always hoped that he was wrong, because war is never a solution and, in the case of Korea in particular, the risk of a nuclear escalation is very high. 

Whatever happens now, it looks really bad.



Update: North Korea claims that the South Korean navy shot missiles, not to the coast, as I said above, but to North Korean territorial waters, to which Pyongyang decided to reply in full force. The note concludes saying: in the Western Sea there will be only the maritime military demarcation line defined by the Popular Democratic Republic of Korea. (Source: Euskal Herria Sozialista[es]).

This seems to underline the fact that it is a real border (demarcation line) dispute. Discussing who is right seems pointless but it is clear that the North was the one who decided to take a step further by shelling military facilities in a show of force. It is like when two people are quarreling pushing each other and then one decides that a punch in the face rather than stepping back is what the situation requires.