Nuclear War?

(Written July 2nd)

Lately I've been getting questions from people back home (well, mostly my mom) about N. Korea and the possibility of nuclear war. I don't blame people for being worried because the American news media seem to be blowing things out of proportion.

The truth is, the South Koreans haven't really lifted an eyebrow over any of the threats the North has made since my arrival 10 months ago. In fact, there is more buzz surrounding the swine flu and Michael Jackson's recent passing than there is about North Korea.

Here is my take on things: In the 10 months that I've been here, I've learned that Koreans tend to say things that they don't mean. They communicate in an indirect, beat-around-the-bush manner that you sort of have to be Korean to fully understand. They also have a flair for the dramatic. If you've ever seen the movie 'Lost in Translation,' there is a scene where Bill Murray is filming a Suntory whisky commercial, and the Japanese director is practically screaming at him in Japanese for like 5 minutes. Murray asks what he is saying, only to find out that it was "please turn your head and look into the camera." This happens all the time to me in Korea. My coworkers will be in seemingly heated, lengthy debates about something, and when I ask what the problem is, it's like, "oh, we were discussing the weather."

Also, in Korea, it's all about the presentation of something and how it looks from the outside. The image you project of yourself is far more important than what you actually are. (I learned this the hard way during a recent teaching evaluation)

So I think that Kim Jong Il and Co. just want people to pay attention to them and are full of empty threats. They have been doing this for years now, and the South Koreans are used to it. It's business as usual here in Seoul.

I could be wrong; no one can really know what is going on up there, but I do feel somewhat comforted that the beefy American soldiers who hang around Gecko's (a 'Western' bar in Itaewon) are here if anything were to go down.