So there has been a lot of hype about North Korea's big mouth lately with Kim, Jong-un ripping up the armistice between North & South Korea.
A little history lesson: The two countries have been at war since 1950 but the fighting stopped due to an armistice instead of a peace treaty in 1953. So the entire time Leif and I have lived here and for Young-gun's entire life South Korea has been at war with North Korea. Yet, this has never stopped life from going on and I don't think it will now.
Since I've lived in South Korea I've been really bad at keeping up with the news, I don't have a TV and most of it angers me. I didn't know any of this was going on until my Step-father asked me on Skype if the South Koreans were scared.
"About what?!"
After being enlightened on the situation I got nervous. Words like, "Nuke," "North Korea," and "Threat" in the same sentence would make anyone living on the peninsula uncomfortable so I decided to have a little talk with my adult students.
The general consensus is that this has happened before. North Korea talks a lot of shit and does cause minor troubles but no one wants to freak out and jump into another deadly war on home soil. A few of my students lived through the main war and many felt the consequences of it. The tidbits of information I can get out of them all point to how hard it was. No one wants to go back to that.
Even the South Korean media doesn't seem worried the situation. The South Koreans know what's going on, it is on the news, but Kim, Jong-un is just young and trying to prove himself. Nothing to fear yet.
So to all of my worried friends and relatives in the States, you can relax a little. America media loves hype and although I do think we should be wary of the situation extra stress about something most of us have absolutely no control over is useless.
Life goes on.
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