Part 2: The Threat of North Korea: Living Below the Hermit Kingdom

As I previously mentioned, the name of my blog was inspired by North Korea which -for obvious reasons- has earned the nickname "The Hermit Kingdom". It seems when the Korean Peninsula makes headlines it is mostly due to the Northern half. However, there is a lot going on below the Hermit Kingdom which this picture demonstrates perfectly:

North Korea is one of the darkest places on earth. When I first arrived in the South, it often struck me that --although I was living in a country abounding in technology, food, entertainment, and general merriment-- it was the winning half of a divided whole. Before moving here the idea that the country of Korea was left this way after a bitter civil war had little meaning to me. I can recall my Mum telling me she had read that North Koreans were much shorter than South Koreans due to malnutrition. I remember thinking that was bizarre. None of this meant much to me until I moved here and really started thinking about it and devoting time to researching about my new Northern neighbours. 

I spent a lot of time in conversation, in reading, and in front of this computer watching videos about North Korea. The information is disturbing.  Prison Camps. Torture. Censorship. Starvation. Mind-control. Poverty.

I think being informed about the plight of the North Korean people is really important. An organization I respect is Liberty in North Korea. Their mission is to rescue North Korean defectors while seeking to change the perception people have of the northern part of this peninsula. They want to create awareness about how the people living in the shadow of this dictatorship suffer rather than constantly drawing attention the leaders of North Korea. Check out their website below:

In Hyeonseo Lee's Ted Talk, she details her escape and the challenges that face other escape attempts from the regime. Check out the video below:

Google Talks has an interview with Shin Dong-Hyuk. He is the only known person to have escaped one of North Korea's infamous prison camps. He discusses life inside, the power of hunger,  death of his family, and the torture inflicted upon him at the hands of the camp's guards.

I find most of the pieces VICE puts out to be very informative, albeit somewhat cynical, and always with an air of flippancy. This is a 3 part series and I have posted part I (open the video in www.youtube.com to find the links to part II and III)

Part 1: The Threat of North Korea: Living Below the Hermit Kingdom

As expats living in South Korea the happenings up North are always kind of at the back of our minds (they even inspired the name of this blog). It comes up when discussing politics, when considering weekend plans (Let’s check out the DMZ!), and sometimes even when meeting South Koreans with relatives still on the other side. Although everyone living here is aware of the big problems a very short distance away – it certainly doesn't affect day-to-day life. Our first year living here we had no worries whatsoever about our unfriendly neighbours. If they ever made headlines we were far too busy adjusting to our new lives to notice.

For the last month it seems that the media coverage of North Korea’s threats are inescapable: it floods my twitter and facebook all day every day. When I check BBC or Aljazeera it is almost always a top story. It seems the only way to escape the threat of North Korea is to unplug and hang out with South Koreans.  Their indifference is admirable…they've had lots of practice. Most of us ex-pats are not quite as good at it.

While the media is telling us to panic, our South Korean friends are telling us to ignore it altogether. We have tried to remain somewhere in between the two reactions. I would be lying if I said we are entirely unaffected by the information we are getting from the media. It is hard to remain completely emotionally uninvolved when you are constantly being bombarded with messages that the country a few hundred kilometers away is going to make your current home a ‘sea of fire’. Also kind of scary is the warning to ‘evacuate’ because of the impending doom of war. What keeps us generally unaffected is that the source of these threats is utterly unreliable. It is North Korea saying that foreigners should leave South Korea. It is North Korea saying there is a war upon us. It is North Korea saying they are prepared to use nuclear weapons. I happen to have very little respect for what North Korea says and I happen to have a decent amount of respect for what Canada says. So, what is Canada saying?

When the time comes to panic, I have no problem panicking. If I get an email from the Canadian embassy saying to evacuate immediately, that is just what I will (try to) do. If I get a call from one of my South Korean friends saying to take cover and find a bomb shelter that is just what I’ll (try to) do. However, right now, it seems the best thing to do is take the South Korean approach: ignore it until it goes away – which should be in a few weeks.

This week I decided to talk to one of my co-teachers about the situation. He laughingly said, “...don’t worry about it, I’ll call you if you need to evacuate”. When I asked my students if they thought the situation with North Korea was scary they said “Noooo!! – if North Korea attacks America will destroy them!”.

For now I'll remain calm, keep one eye on what the Canadian Embassy is saying, and the other on all the hilarious memes being directed at Kim Jong Un.

For more memes check out: http://weknowmemes.com/2013/04/25-funniest-north-korea-kim-jong-un-memes-gifs-and-comics/

The tension of the situation heightens the humor of the memes, while the memes help to ease the tension. I like being able to laugh at Kim Jung Un memes, but the plight of the North Korean people is not a laughing matter. 

I will be discussing more of my thoughts on North Korea in my next post. 

Further Reading:

Very informative piece on AlJazeera

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2013/03/2013312101859592247.html?utm_content=automate&utm_campaign=Trial6&utm_source=NewSocialFlow&utm_term=plustweets&utm_medium=MasterAccount

On the lighter side: What Simon & Martini from Eat Your Kimchi are saying about the threat of North Korea: