by thomasglee » Wed Nov 24, 2010 2:20 pm
I'm leaving Friday evening for Seoul and I've been talking to the managers of our office there. From their reaction and the reactions I've read on various blogs that deal with Korea, the ROK citizens really aren't taking all this very seriously. One account I read was truly ignorant and must be considered for most clueless statement of the year:
She also felt somehow more secure being in Seoul, even though it is just 110 miles from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and within easy range of the North’s missiles and artillery along the heavily militarized border.
“We think the government will be more protective of us here, and it’s safer than in any other part of the country,” Ms. Pyun said.
Another quote from the linked NYT's piece:
Residents of Seoul, however, seemed to display only a mild anxiety on Wednesday, caught somewhere between calm and dread, and maybe breathing a collective sigh of relief that things had not escalated.
“I was talking with a friend this morning and we wondered why we weren’t more concerned,” a Seoul restaurant owner, Pyun Sung-ja, said on Wednesday. “I guess it’s because the area of the shelling is so far from here. It feels like it happened in another country.”
The Koreans have become numb to the provocations and I think you're right that one day, they're all going to encounter a
very rude awakening.
Anxiety in Seoul as Civilian Deaths Are ReportedI'm leaving Friday evening for Seoul and I've been talking to the managers of our office there. From their reaction and the reactions I've read on various blogs that deal with Korea, the ROK citizens really aren't taking all this very seriously. One account I read was truly ignorant and must be considered for most clueless statement of the year:
[quote]She also felt somehow more secure being in Seoul, even though it is just 110 miles from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and within easy range of the North’s missiles and artillery along the heavily militarized border.
“We think the government will be more protective of us here, and it’s safer than in any other part of the country,” Ms. Pyun said.[/quote]
Another quote from the linked NYT's piece:
[quote]Residents of Seoul, however, seemed to display only a mild anxiety on Wednesday, caught somewhere between calm and dread, and maybe breathing a collective sigh of relief that things had not escalated.
“I was talking with a friend this morning and we wondered why we weren’t more concerned,” a Seoul restaurant owner, Pyun Sung-ja, said on Wednesday. “I guess it’s because the area of the shelling is so far from here. It feels like it happened in another country.” [/quote]
The Koreans have become numb to the provocations and I think you're right that one day, they're all going to encounter a [i][b]very[/b][/i] rude awakening.
[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/world/asia/25seoul.html?_r=1&src=mv]Anxiety in Seoul as Civilian Deaths Are Reported[/url]