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| Fear me??? |
Time to dwell briefly on one of my least favorite, most annoying topics: North Korea. I really, really did not want to devote blog space to this ridiculous subject, but after receiving so many messages from people abroad asking about the situation, I feel no choice but to talk about it here. Damn you, Kim Jong Un!
Given Western (and by Western I mean mostly American as that
is where I am from) media coverage of the unfolding buildup of hostilities on
the Korean peninsula, though, I’m not surprised at the level of concern
expressed by my overseas friends. It
does sound grave. The North has promised
to turn South Korea into a “sea of fire”.
They have conducted a nuclear test, launched long-range rockets, cut off
an emergency military hotline with the South, and “withdrew” from the 1953
armistice agreement ending the Korean War (though they
did this before just 4 years ago).
Their spokesmen have vowed to “break the waists of the crazy enemies,
totally cut their windpipes and thus clearly show them what real war is like.” So yeah, if we take the North at their word,
we should be extremely concerned!!
But talk does not equal action, especially from a dystopian state
reminiscent of Oceania from the book “1984”.
As anyone who has read George Orwell’s classic remembers, the fictional
state from the novel is in a perpetual state of war with either Eurasia or
Eastasia, though the narrator can never remember who. The ruling party of Oceania claims that
perpetual poverty is a necessary sacrifice for the war effort. People convicted of “thought crimes” against
the state are sent to reeducation centers and tortured until they can again
prove their loyalty to the totalitarian state.
And so we also these elements in contemporary North Korea, a state where
the citizens live in relentless fear or have been mindlessly brainwashed into
believing that the country must unite and sacrifice to fend off the ever-present
“American imperialists”.
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| What we know about the new Dear Leader: he likes the Chicago Bulls, wears cowboy hats, and has a pretty Korean wife |
Frankly, I see the North Korean government as noisy neighbors. I think Kim Jong Un and his military advisors are simply playing power politics, doing whatever it takes to maintain control over their wretched and miserable populace and retain a life of luxury. So they keep their country in a perpetual state of crisis to inspire nationalism amongst the people. They threaten attacks on their southern neighbor and the US as a way to extort donations and try to earn a place at international negotiating tables that they don’t deserve. They get upset about external affairs – things like UN sanctions or American war games – and turn up the rhetoric to try to get some control over them.
There’s a cultural element missed by Western news agencies
that publish every word issued by the North Korean regime: Koreans have a flair
for dramatic, over-the-top, oftentimes ridiculous and unsubstantiated rhetoric. I see this too in South Korea. Many of the videos shown internally over
Samsung internal television also use language that Westerners find theatrical
and absurd. South Korea has an extreme
culture in so many ways – in the amount people work, the amount they drink, the
amount of plastic surgery they get – so I am not surprised when this extreme
element of the Korean character gets translated into language. North Korea and South Korea are brothers from
the same mother…hence, I’m now not at all surprised at the word choices the
North Koreans make.
Despite all the threats, the North Korean leaders have no
incentive to launch an attack. There are
almost 30,000 American troops and many more South Koreans ready to
counterattack the moment the North Koreans pull the trigger. South Korea’s forces are vastly superior to
the North’s and would devastate Pyongyang in no time. Also, North Korea’s perpetual ally, China,
has no interest in conflict either and will do everything in its power to
maintain stability with this situation. The Chinese have long feared an influx of
North Korean refugees stemming from a collapse of the Kim dynasty, and also
perhaps may be wary of the potential power that a unified Korea may possess.
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| The North Koreans are prepared for our imminent invasion, I guess |
In short, I’m not panicking here and neither is anyone else
in Seoul. The North Korean nukes are a little
worrisome, but the North’s conventional artillery has been pointed at Seoul for
60 years already. With the South Korean
capital lying only 30 miles from the border, the North has long had the
potential to devastate Seoul. The people
here have seen this pattern of bombastic rhetoric play itself out before and seem
alert but not scared. Tourists visiting
Seoul can breathe a sigh of relief – the tours to the DMZ border are still
operating as usual. And in a sign that
crisis isn’t being felt here, perhaps the biggest news story this week has been
a recent law passed to limit indecent exposure which some
fear could alter the dress codes of South Korea’s short-skirted masses of
young women.
But with an unproven leader now at the helm in Pyongyang,
who knows what is actually going on?
There is always the chance that Kim Jong Un will plunge into doing
something irrational or lose control of the situation. And, as an older Korean man told me at dinner
a couple weeks ago, “If a conflict breaks out, we [the South Koreans] simply
have nowhere to go.” So I will stay on
alert and continue to watch the situation, just like everyone else.
