The general tone and intent of this post is to acknowledge the severity of recent events on the Korean peninsula while keeping their overall scope in perspective… at least as I see it from my corner of Korea.
First, the very reality that I am writing this post confirms that, of course, nothing physical or immediately logistical in nature has occurred to me personally from the events. Second, I think it is important that I let the less informed readers understand what has occurred on a South Korean island in the disputed region between North and South Korea. Saying that, I would like to avoid making my blog a political rostrum while maintaining the cultural integrity of the content.
I was informed sometime around 6:00 PM yesterday that an artillery attack was made by North Korea, at around 2:30, on the island of Yeongpyeong, situated in a part of the Yellow Sea that was the site of an alleged North Korean sinking of a South Korean ship during the summer. However, unlike the previous incident in which North Korea denies any blame for, this attack was unequivocally a strike from North Korean artillery. Because the aggressor was, on this occasion, indisputable, South Korea responded by launching a number of aircraft to return fire on the entrenched guns on the North Korean coastline. Additionally, unlike this summer’s incident, the attack was targeted at civilian buildings. The result was the death of two Korean soldiers as well as two civilians, so far counted.
Aggressive acts taken by North Korea, both discretely and in plain view, are not unprecedented in the history of North and South since the close of the Korean War and the armistice that concluded it. However, what makes this event strikingly different from previous ones is three major factors: 1) the attack was deliberate and with clear intent, 2) South Korea retaliated with force of arms in direct response 3) the attack incurred both military and civilian casualties.
As I gather, the civilian destruction and casualties are the greatest factor in explaining South Korea’s stance on the situation which, as articulated by President Lee Myung-Bak, demands “enormous retaliation.” At the moment, the US has made troops readily available and pledges its continuous support to South Korea but remains, for now, unwilling to taking action beyond the diplomatic realm. Similarly, Japan supports South Korea but is suing for a diplomatic resolution while China, characteristically though frustratingly, is “concerned” about the situation and is waiting for further information before it takes any kind of stance of its own. China, though, is the linchpin in the whole situation as the only country that remains sympathetic in, any way, to North Korea’s brinkmanship.
As it stands now, there is a lot still up in the air and it is difficult to determine the consequences that can be expected in the future. On one end, North Korea’s attack is nothing unusual to its typically irrational and extreme approach towards gaining a political foothold as a failing and starving nation among more stable and powerful states. North Korea’s radical measures, flag shipped by this event and the recent revelation of a new uranium-enrichment program that is now underway, are the only bargaining chips the country can muster to turn bigger heads of the world. Still, the magnitude of the circumstance makes it not unreasonable to consider the escalation of hostilities to a degree that could become difficult if not impossible to control. I think the next few days and weeks will do a great deal in giving us a sense of the that course this event will send the nations involved on.
With that being said, as I try to pull myself from the discussion to avoid any unneeded political punditry, I am sitting here in my apartment on a Wednesday, typing away and it is business as usual. While I my lingual ineptitude might not make me the most accurate of gauges for this kind of thing, it seems like the whole city is still business as usual. I’ve been in contact with my friend that I met up with in Seoul and her message to me last night, in her effective and competently written though mildly basic English, she explained to me that “Korea is dangerous because of N. Korea.” She is right, and to be honest, there might be a greater deal of concern for people in Seoul who reside just below the 38th parallel. However, this part of the conversation took place right after her distress over Korea’s loss in the semi-finals to the UAB during Asian Games going on right now. I had actually been watching the game myself and I had never seen Korea play such fancy soccer and miss so many golden opportunities as the team that absolutely should have won. Luckily, we got to watch Korea demolish Saudi Arabia (nothing against Saudi Arabia, I just have a special place for Korea in my heart) in handball, which was really pretty awesome. Either way, the overall concern in Korea, at the moment, remains mildly alert without any real change in attitude or daily activity.
In other news, my training for my half marathon here in Gwangju is going more or less smoothly. It hasn’t really been much more than maintaining what I’ve built up to since the past two marathons. There hasn’t really been any time to do much else. I have two fellow colleagues chalked to do it along with me and I think we might be able to expect a solid degree of support from the good people at LCI. I go in with zero expectations, knowing that I’m at the tail end of my marathoning “season” and that because this is my first half it means I’m just posting a time for me to beat in the future. My real concern after this race is keeping up my training with the cold weather getting worse and no real race in front of me until either the half at Rutgers in April or the full in Pittsburgh in May----Oh, that’s right, you heard it right, I’m making advanced plans in…wait for it…America. Pretty cool, huh? The one other bit of Marathoning news occurred today when I got a phone call from Seoul, in the morning, regarding the Joongang Seoul Marathon. As it turns out, I took 2nd place in the 20-29 age group, which entitles me to a gift certificate to New Balance(unfortunately a brand I refuse to wear) and a jacket. I’m not sure what the jacket will look like but it’s free so I’m excited.
At school, we have to go in for a couple of hours for parent/teacher conferences on Saturday morning. Being that this is my second year around this stuff is all old hat, of course and it will be nice to have an excuse to tame my weekend down a little bit -especially after Chris’ Birthday Extravaganza last weekend, which was awesome but I am getting too tired to write about.
Well, that should do it for now.
For the time being, all is (relatively) quiet on the Eastern Front.
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