It is becoming increasingly difficult to tell on which side of the DMZ China stands this time around.
Kim Jong-il and Hu Jin-tao - leaders of North Korea and China
This is not a notion that will have crossed most governments minds. It has always been assumed that North Korea would do virtually whatever the Chinese government 'suggested' - especially as China is really Kim Jong-il's only credible ally, and the source of the great majority of the North's trade.
Whether the disturbing lack of intervention on the part of the Chinese government in recent days is down to their unwillingness to get involved, or whether, as Mullen suggests, the North simply wouldn't listen anyway is open for debate.
It has been said that the North's attack on Yeonpyeong last week was an embarassment for China - as it highlighted how little influence it actually had over it's small but constantly agitated ally.
But China is the great puppet-master of Asia - holding the strings of countless neighbouring states, and more than able to crush the North Korean leadership, should it choose to.
Kim Jong-il is often portrayed as craving the worlds attention
However, the history of these two countries are somewhat entwined; lets not for a second forget how North Korea came to be.It was China afterall, who in 1953 pushed UN forces back down to the 38th parallel, allowing Kim Il-sung's bizarre pocket of lunacy to take root in the years following the Korean War.
It was therefore, China who allowed this most troublesome of dictatorships to exist in the first place.
Image from the Chinese propaganda film 'The 38th Parallel'
While America and the UN have attempted to keep the North in line, with even weapons inspectors themselves becoming famous in the process, it was always assumed that if China had the will to, North Korea could be adequately controlled by them. There is now cause for the world to reconsider, and the next few days will certainly reveal a lot about the relationship between these two, untrustworthy and, to be honest, unpleasant states.
Maj Gen You Nak-jun, the head of South Korea's marine corps, recently said: "We'll certainly repay North Korea a thousand-fold for killing and harming our marines.
"South Korean active-duty marines and all reserve forces will engrave this anger and hostility in our bones and we will make sure we take revenge on North Korea."
And who can blame them.
There will be further fighting between the two Koreas, possibly on a scale not seen since the last Korean war.
The only surprise will be on which side of the DMZ - the world's most heavily fortified area of land - the Peoples Republic of China allies itself.
And whichever side it is will reveal more about China and the way it wishes to be perceived by the world, than we've ever been able to see before...
Time to put your cards on the table, China.
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