"South Korea Holds Yeonpyeong Artillery Drill"

This morning to late afternoon, residents at Yeonpyeong Island had a practice drill. In this drill, the residents were told to take the shelter, similar to the nuclear bomb drills in the United States during the Cold War. Meanwhile, the artillery guns were fired in "self defense" as preparations for a potential increase in international tensions along the Korean peninsula.

The United States and their allies were fairly receptive to the live-fire drill, but Russia and China warned the South against performing such actions. This effectively divides the P-5 once again, as it did for the later half of the Cold War. Knowing what we know about North Korea through Wikileaks, does this change anything?

I think the South Korea has every right to hold a practice drill as their citizens were killed in the first attack. After all, these drills were fairly effective in informing the citizens on the island what to do in an emergency. I do feel that North Korea has been a little aggressive since they sunk the South Korean destroyer "Cheonan", but now it seems South Korea is the only one who is being aggressive in the peninsula.

Does this accomplish a different purpose than the earlier naval drills with the USS George Washington? Are we still in the middle of Cold War tensions with the Korean peninsula? What about China and Russia? What position should the United States take? Other thoughts?

Recent Update: An interesting development: North Korea seems to have allowed inspectors to visit their nuclear facilities and is showing a fairly weak response compared to the USS George Washington incident earlier this year.