Many times in the past that's been the case.
The North just revealed it has an uranium enrichment operation ~ built secretly ~ and now it's firing on that island.
This is very, very Korean. You have a dispute, you take it outside. Both of you kick at the lawn and kick up turf that you throw in the air behind you ~ you stomp around the grounds.
The Chinese didn't direct this one ~ it's purely Korean. However, it's the South Korean government that's not acting normally (in the traditional Korean manner).
Getting back to that ship everybody and his brother knew the North had sunk the ship. The South Korean government treated the incident as an accident as though the North Korean government was incapable of sinking ships. This went on until the North Koreans confessed ~ they couldn't stand being denigrated like that for so long.
At some point this sort of thing slops over into one of those situations where the superior party, in this case, South Korea, TOYS WITH their opponent until he gives up ~ think Wiley Coyote ~ the Road Runner always wins.
My prediction ~ the South Koreans will probably blow up the uranium enrichment plant AT WILL sometime in November when the North is disabled with an ice storm. They'll also disable the other nuclear installations, and the missile factories, and the sewage system in Pyong Yang.
They will use a minimum of force while at the same time inflicting humiliating and degrading acts on the North.
The Chinese government will stand back from this. They do things differently but I'm sure they think this is tremendous theatre. In the end their trade relations with South Korea will not suffer, and the Korean speaking part of China (an immense area as big as the Peninsula) will remain at peace ~ maybe even enjoying their 10% pay raise already scheduled.
About blowing up the sewage system in Pyongyang, well the South Korea could have done any time in the past decade. But they haven't because the risk of artillery shells raining over Seoul is too real. The North Korean regime doesn't care about Pyongyang while the South Koreans do care about their capital. As I said before, this is a game of brinkmanship which China and North Korea have played for more than 15 years and have succeeded in keeping the US and its allies on their toes.