In August the world was treated to the sight of yet another Korean crisis. In many regards, the August 2015 crisis was very similar to other incidents we have seen happen in and around Korea over the last 20 years. However, there are reasons to suspect that this crisis had some hidden features that made it different from what we have seen before – and these features may actually be heartening.

The basic outline of the story is well-known. On August 4 two South Korean soldiers on patrol in the DMZ were maimed in a landmine explosion. Soon after, the South Korean army came to the conclusion that the landmine had been planted by North Korean special forces, who had purposefully infiltrated the DMZ. In retaliation, South Korean forces switched on propaganda speakers in the DMZ – not used since 2004. The North Koreans reacted by shooting a few rounds of light ammunition in the general direction of the loud speakers. The South Korean side, after a rather prolonged discussion taking more than an hour, retaliated once again by shooting back 29 rounds of 155 mm shells.