War?

Today was quite a dramatic one.

Being in South Korea for my second year, I'm used to the threats from North Korea, the occasional BBC 'crisis', and the general tensions between the South and North. That said, I'm also pretty used to ignoring it. It's well known that North Korea feels the need to reiterate it's 'power', especially at times of internal or global weakness, and uses the threat of nuclear weapons as its mean of doing so. Despite the media drama back home, South Koreans are seemingly pretty relaxed about the whole situation, which leads me to feel relaxed also. Besides, why would North Korea do something so blatantly suicidal as attacking the South, when they know the USA would stand in? Only an agreement with China or Russia could lead them to do such a thing....and that's unlikely....

So today seemed a little different from the usual North/South clash. To begin with, this is the first time North Korea has opened fire on South Korean land where civilians are living. There has been the occasional cross-border incidents, but only over water.....and nothing so seemingly unprovoked.

BBC image of Yeonpyeong events today

The most notably different thing of today was the people's reaction to the events. A friend of mine went to quickly transfer her money out of Korea, only to be told by the bank manager to 'prepare for war'. All flights out of Korea, and all KTX train tickets away from Seoul were sold out. My first class of students came in gushing to use the internet to be updated on the events, sparking tears and hugs....even planning escape routes. Something about this sudden change from ease to nervousness caused me to be nervous. In every class, students were talking about the 'war'...some excited, some anxious, some nonchalant, some terrified. Even my Korean co-teachers came in asking how I felt about 'the war'.

South Koreans watching the incident on TV

OK so in reality......we're not at war. Admittedly, we are at the 'highest non-wartime alert'.....meaning that should anything provocative occur in the immediate future, a state of war could be announced, but in all likelihood, this is another case of North Korea shouting wolf. Nothing is likely to happen. The 'Korean Crisis' shall hopefully die down in a few days. 

But it is interesting to be in a country so politically tense. How long can this ceasefire - without a peace treaty - hold out? How would it feel to be one of my students, growing up in a country so recently divided, unsure of whether war will break out or whether it will be reunified? I used today as an appropriate opportunity to discuss these issues with my students. I asked each class whether they wish to be reunified with North Korea. Although opinions were divided, 3 out of 4 classes voted against reunification. Their reasoning was that North Korea is so impoverished, a reunification would ruin the South Korean economy. Mighty smart elementary school kids....if not mighty unsympathetic to their starving cousins. It seems that in the generation change, the want to reconcile with brothers, mothers, wives, cousins has become outlived....the younger generation never knew the northern people and therefore feel little if no loyalty to them.

So how does it feel to be a child growing up in South Korea in this age of uncertainty? Well, according to them they'll feel 'happy, because if there is war there will be no school'...... 'angry, because they will take our money'.......'let's pray to Jesus for help' and............. 'teacher, my heart is raining today'.

Let's hope tomorrow this all blows over. I think it will. And then we'll have no need for anger, Jesus, rain....and no need for school would be nice too.