North Korea? Who? – A Normal Waygook-ing Wednesday

Dear family and friends back home:

Thank you for being so concerned and checking up on me the past couple of weeks :) But pleeeaaaase, don’t panic! The South Koreans certainly aren’t! Life is going on normally. The streets of Seoul are still bustling with Koreans and tourists and DMZ tours at the SK-NK border are still being scheduled. The stop light on my way to school still turns to the walk signal at precisely 8:15am, the ajumma on my street is still selling her delicious-smelling fish-shaped red bean cakes and the Paris Baguette owner still chimes in with a friendly “An-nyong-ha-se-yo!” when I walk in. And of course, I haven’t abandoned the school full of students. English classes are going on as normal. This week’s Conversation & Culture class? Konglish in Korea: The incorrect, bizarre and funny.  

Yet, staying informed is always important in my books, so now my daily routine involves a look at the latest news online. I try to mix it up – look at the Korean news, the BBC, American news, CBC… The differences in how the portray the situation can be quite amusing. Here’s a sampling – a video from US media today that discusses how NK has officially shut down the industrial park that links the two Koreas economically at the border: 

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50144533n

While it does seem like it is a little more serious than it has been in the past, the Koreans I talk to are still not worrying, especially the Koreans in their 20’s and up who have lived through these NK threats countless times as part of a plan to "intimidate" the south.  Some younger ones, such as the first year high school students (about grade 10) that I teach, are less "blasé" about it though because they are younger and haven't lived to see all the threats in the past half century.  This past week, when asking them if they felt worried at all, some said not at all, some said they don’t follow the news and some said they feel just a little worried because it seems a little more serious than in the past.

As in the past, NK is making a variety of threats – verbal throw-up and insults, threats to test missiles, threats to end economic ties, threats to launch nuclear missiles… It is all because they want the UN to lift sanctions and because they want monetary aid from the international community - most people don't believe they would actually wage full-out war.  This latest morsel of news (that was quite blown up and sensationalized by the international community yesterday) is that NK has warned foreigners to leave SK because it is unsafe, threatening that a war could begin as early as… today? The most plausible reason behind this is the economic downfall that would transpire from such a collapse of the tourism industry and expat working community.  Of course NK doesn’t care about the foreigners – they want economic aid from SK and other countries. Here is an article from CBC about this: 

North Korea urges foreigners to leave South Korea

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/09/north-korea-warning-evacuation-tensions.html

Part of the logic in the “lack of panic” in SK is that South Koreans know North Korea won't use a nuclear weapon on South Korea because that would also greatly affect North Korea (being neighbours) - if they do any small attacks (IF), it would probably be smaller scale and at the American military base. In that case, I would not be affected and could quickly head south if need be (from Incheon there are buses and whatnot, so you wouldn't even need to go through Seoul). If anyone has to worry, it's the USA (and southern Canada) in my opinion. If NK uses their nuclear weapons it would most likely be against the US... If this is naïve, I welcome any and all comments – like I said, I’m trying to stay informed, so if you have other opinions, I’d love to hear them!

And yea, the media sensationalizes things a lot... but yes, I am thinking about it, watching/reading the news every day and staying informed. 

I don't want you to worry about me (I know, easier said than done), but maybe if you watch this video, your mind will be a little more at ease J :

High Tensions on the Korean Peninsula:

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2013/s3727471.htm

On a final note, you may find this interesting to contrast the two Koreas and put them into perspective:  

Taken from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/2013/apr/08/south-korea-v-north-korea-compared

Just another day - Happy Hump Day!

~Leana