Griddable » North Korea is an Asshole

North Korea is an Asshole

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011 in: News, Travel

Sounds harsh, but all signs point to asshole.

Although the Korean war is said to have ended in 1953, in reality only an armistice was signed, making it just a half-century long ceasefire South Korea has spent their time frantically trying to catch up with the west, developing at an alarming rate and pulling itself up by the sweat and blood of its people. I’m certain the citizens of the north have faced similar hardships, but the result has been a totalitarian dictatorship where the gap between the haves and the have-nots is even greater than that of the reviled west, for which they blame all the people’s misery.

Since the war technically never ended, aggression has flared up periodically over the years, keeping tensions high as the threat of all-out war looms overhead. Over the course of decades, people in South Korea have learned to take the North’s actions with a grain of salt, going on with their lives despite North Korea’s best efforts. I didn’t know much about these incidents before I came to Korea, but it seems like at least a few times a year the DPRK acts like a spoilt child vying for the adults’ attention. The ax murder incident, the infiltration tunnels, the kidnappings, and just this year the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel and bombing of an island close to the border are just a few ways the North has tweaked its nose at the west. To people back home, these incidents signal the start of a greater conflict; my parents have urged me to move on to my next destination before things get ugly. But the longer I’m here, the more I understand the attitude here in Seoul. 40 kilometers away from a hostile nation on the verge of armed conflict, and it’s just business as usual. Why get so worked up whenever the neighbor throws a tantrum?

Kim Jong Il is on his way to wearing those big platform shoes in the sky, and so it looks like he’s chosen his youngest son, Jong Un to have the dubious honor of succeeding him. Despite being the youngest Il, Jong Un has the distinction of being uncompromisingly anti-democratic and anti-American, a fine choice to continue for a third generation the despotism that’s ravaged his country. Perhaps in an effort to establish his aggressive policies, North Korea has been especially violent this year, with the torpedoing of the warship Cheonan in early 2010 and then the artillery attack on Yongpyeong island a week after I arrived in Seoul.

To get a better understanding of the conflict, and my own country’s involvement, I visited the War Museum next to the US military base Camp Kim. I saw evidence of the North’s aggression, including fragments of the torpedo that sank the Cheonan and photos taken during the ax murder attack in the 70’s. This stuff is common knowledge in Korea but this was the first I had heard of these things.

Walking through the airship graveyard, in the shadows of B-52 bombers, fighter jets, and ground vehicles of all kinds, my limited knowledge of military history came into light; the more I learned the more I realized how little I knew. In these artifacts lay the real history of war, a tangible testimony to its horrors. On the decommissioned warship docked next to the museum, the spots where seamen were killed were marked, a grim reminder of the horrors of war, despite the clean nameplate and fresh paint. History is real and some of it is grim, but studying it and understanding it is the only way to avoid repeating it. Another thing that surprised me was the international effort involved in the Korean war; watching M.A.S.H. back home, you would think that it was only Americans fighting the communists, but it was a coalition of UN forces from all around the world, and the war museum honored each and every nation with an exhibit.