I still don't think there's a risk of world war. First there are too many unrelated issues and large countries like China and Russia's vital interests are not at stake or involved in them enough. Also since the advent of the atomic bomb, that killed the possibility of a open war where you try to use everything. Instead it gave birth to small hypocrite proxy wars and terrorism.

The tension between the Turk government and the Kurds is not new. The Kurds have been using terrorism for their indepence cause while the Turks have been using death squads for a while.

As for North Korea, I think the US prefer to maintain the status quo for now rather than reunifying the two Koreas. North Korea creates a political barrier between South Korea / Japan and China to kind of slow down exchanges between Korean and China.

Besides, Kim Jong-il is actually nothing but a spoiled brat. He uses blackmail like testing missiles and other funny threats to negotiate and get more international "humanitarian" aid, which goes to feed its army, which is I believe ¼ of the population. The civilians have to eat roots to survive.

Frankie