War?

It's the 30th of March 2013 and I'm in my apartment in the South Korean city of Jinju. The city is located in Gyeongsangnam-do province down in the deep South of South Korea.

Today is like any other day of late, in that the spring sunshine and cherry blossoming provides a very pleasant experience to my day to day life here as an English teacher. People are going about their business as usual and there really is not a sign that anything is afoot.

Then you turn to the news in whichever format you prefer it, in my case it’s the web and I see that North Korea have upped the anti once again this morning.  The North now claim to be in a ‘state of war’ with the South and the game moves on to its next stage. The fact the two Koreas have been at war since 1950 without a peace treaty being signed seems to have escaped the propaganda machine up North.

Instinctively I then check my email inbox to see if the FCO have advised me to leave the country. No, nothing there except an email from Jessops camera store to tell me they’re reopening.

So what am I to make of all this bravado from the North that has got Western news agencies running around like headless chickens?  In all truthfulness there is a tinge of anxiety with each passing threat. I have found myself thinking ‘what if’ and ‘where would I head to?’ if the balloon does indeed go up anytime soon.

A ferry or a flight to Japan would be the easiest option I presume, due to its neutrality. Then I remember that I’m a card carrying member of the free press and it would be my duty to stay here and report on what is happening as the third world war enters stage left.

It’s all purely fantasy and spin of course. The North is using the standard Orwellian tactic of keeping its people scared by an invisible but yet evil enemy. Hence, securing its despot regime for another generation.

Here in the South it seems that the locals hardly ever talk about events from across the border. Most families lost relatives in the 1950-53 war and they see this kind of sabre rattling from the North every few years. So it is very understandable how they just carry on with life as normal, even if they do peek at the news every now and then.

When I first arrived in South Korea last June I was naturally intrigued by how the people viewed their Northern Neighbours. I didn't of course get off the plane and start asking probing questions. But I did gage the mood and one gets the feeling that is a reluctant discussion subject due to the scars of war that have not healed.  It’s a stalemate of sorts and the people in South Korea have learnt to live with it and carry on with their lives.

Then my mind flashes back to the early 90s, when I would try and broach the topic of the troubles in Northern Ireland to people I met from that part of the World.

The Irish people didn’t really want to talk about it back then, as the Koreans largely don’t want to talk about the events here and now in South Korea.  Of course I’m distinctly more subtle now than as I was back then but it’s a similar mind-set that both respective people have or had. You live with something so long (a lifetime in the case of under 50s) that it becomes something you almost forget is there.

Will something happen? I don’t think so but I’m not a military analyst nor am I privy to any intelligence but I do trust in good old fashioned common sense.

If our Neighbours up north really did pose a serious threat then any DMZ tour would be out of the question totally. The fact I could be in Seoul tomorrow and booked on a tour to the front line says it all.

To place it in perspective, one can’t really imagine the Polish Government in 1939 allowing tourists to peek out at the massed German forces across the border can you?