Some of you may have heard that one of Korea's neighbours has been getting a bit uppity lately. Back home if your neighbours get grumpy, they usually knock on your door to complain, or shout out the window at you (this option is generally reserved for raucous parties, unless you live in an Oor Wullie cartoon). In Korea, when your neighbours get grumpy they go all out and threaten you with a 'sea of fire'. What follows is purely anecdotal stories of the South Korean reaction.
North Korea has been making vocal threats against the South and her allies since about the day before I left home (and luckily I managed to keep my mum from finding out until after I'd arrived). They've also hacked all of South Korea's banks and national broadcasters, cut off the communication lines between the two countries in the DMZ, and closed the jointly-run factory located just over the border. Despite all this, no-one here seems overly concerned - the North apparently tends to make similar threats every year at this time (the US and South Korean armies have recently completed an annual exercise, and this show of strength probably riles up those crazy Northerners). The banks have been hacked before, a sea of fire has been promised before, and nothing has really happened - life in South Korea is going on much as before, despite the hysteria of the western media.
Pretty much everyone I've spoken to says the same: that this is all bluster, and North Korea are just testing the South. It's unlikely that the North have the capacity for nuclear weapons, and South Korea, the US and Japan all have decent anti-missile protections. There have been a few dissenting voices though:
One kid's mother has apparently been stocking up on tinned foods - although he added that she does this every time there's a scare, and so far to no avail.
One of the Korean teachers at my school is convinced all us foreigners are going to make a midnight run. Which isn't overly reassuring.
And finally, one of my kids today started asked me what the names for the compass points were in English, and when I told him he drew a compass on his hand and said 'North Korea's crazy. Today (a lot of gesticulating and sound effects amounting to bombs and everything blowing up). If North Korea bomb today, I will run south!' Can't fault his logic - I didn't have the heart to tell him his hand wouldn't necessarily be able to locate magnetic North...
Don't worry guys, a fellow teacher and I have an escape plan if war breaks out - we're going to swim to China, and work things out from there. I can already say Happy New Year and nice hat in Mandarin, so we should be fine.
North Korea has been making vocal threats against the South and her allies since about the day before I left home (and luckily I managed to keep my mum from finding out until after I'd arrived). They've also hacked all of South Korea's banks and national broadcasters, cut off the communication lines between the two countries in the DMZ, and closed the jointly-run factory located just over the border. Despite all this, no-one here seems overly concerned - the North apparently tends to make similar threats every year at this time (the US and South Korean armies have recently completed an annual exercise, and this show of strength probably riles up those crazy Northerners). The banks have been hacked before, a sea of fire has been promised before, and nothing has really happened - life in South Korea is going on much as before, despite the hysteria of the western media.
Pretty much everyone I've spoken to says the same: that this is all bluster, and North Korea are just testing the South. It's unlikely that the North have the capacity for nuclear weapons, and South Korea, the US and Japan all have decent anti-missile protections. There have been a few dissenting voices though:
One kid's mother has apparently been stocking up on tinned foods - although he added that she does this every time there's a scare, and so far to no avail.
One of the Korean teachers at my school is convinced all us foreigners are going to make a midnight run. Which isn't overly reassuring.
And finally, one of my kids today started asked me what the names for the compass points were in English, and when I told him he drew a compass on his hand and said 'North Korea's crazy. Today (a lot of gesticulating and sound effects amounting to bombs and everything blowing up). If North Korea bomb today, I will run south!' Can't fault his logic - I didn't have the heart to tell him his hand wouldn't necessarily be able to locate magnetic North...
Don't worry guys, a fellow teacher and I have an escape plan if war breaks out - we're going to swim to China, and work things out from there. I can already say Happy New Year and nice hat in Mandarin, so we should be fine.
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