North Korean Yeonpyeong Attack - Not on Purpose?

In spite of the international outrage, the recent North Korean attack on the South Korean Yeonpyeong, 연평도, islands may have been a clumsy mistake. The attack seems so utterly pointless that not even the North Korean leadership perhaps thought of it.

Imagine this scenario. You are a North Korean soldier. You have heard all your life that there are evil countries like South Korea and the US who constantly are trying to attack the country you live in, and where you, in spite of some hardships, have had a fairly decent childhood. Now, this is the real thing. You are a soldier close to the border, and the evil enemies are close by. Suddenly, you see and hear the South firing with canons.

You know that your duty is to defend the country of your family and friends. (You do not have to think about the fact that you defend Kim Jong Il, 김정일, and the communist party as well.) You give alert. "We are under attack." Surely that is the only reason why the South would fire their canons - to attack us.  They are, after all, evil - that's what you have heard all your life. Your officers panic. They also want to defend the country of their families and friends. They immediately order retaliation.

This is important. This is to defend the peace of your community, to make sure that nothing harms your parents, your sisters and brothers, your friends and your small innocent nephews and nieces, perhaps your own children. It is such an important task, and you are part of it. Of course you have to fire, fire and fire again, against the evil anonymous enemy out there.

This goes on for about an hour, and 170 shells have been fired. During most of this time, the South shoots, now definitely at you and your friends, who have done nothing worse than trying to defend your near and dear. You finally stop shooting, when a senior officer gets involved and tells you to. About one hour later, the South stops their shooting as well.

You make your report to your command, who send their report to Pyongyang, 평양, where the top leadership has to try to explain the incident to an annoyed international community, without admitting that their country messed up.

I do not know if this is how it happened, but it seems as likely to me, as some well orchestrated North Korean plot to achieve something one does not even know what it might be. My experience is that politicians make a lot of clumsy mistakes. I am willing to believe that the North Korean politicians are as clumsy as the ones in the West.