Nuke tests and famine

I emailed a number of people about this last week and thought my blog could do with some gross human opinion blather.

The same day of the nuke test reports in the media, the (english) paper's front cover was plastered in North Korean bomb technicalities (hardware diagrams and photos of the test area and a proposed site diagram). Also, the world had denounced the bombings and the USA were talking tough while the UN were talking further sanctions.

Life went on relatively normally for a few days, then I was privy to a great insight into Korean psyche:

In my last class for the night, I got teens playing 'A ship came into the harbour carrying.... countries!' so they had to keep naming countries until they couldn't think of any more, then they got knocked out of the game (incidentally, South Korean kids are great with country names - they couldn't name any from the Pacific Islands, but the rest of the world got well and truly utilised). Anyway, one of the boys was struggling, so he said North Korea (Korea had already been said), and the rest of the class pointed at him and said no. He said it's a different country, and the others said that's not true. I didn't know, so I let the guys decide - Korea, both north
and south, is one country, according to my omnipotent students.

And that wasn't surprising. There doesn't seem to be much animosity directed from south koreans to the northerners. North Korea plays football/soccer against other Asian countries, and the southies at the bars are always cheering at the tv for the northies (I haven't seen a south v north game yet though). based on what I've seen, the South doesn't seem to have any interest in attacking the north, and I wonder if the north feels any differently about the south (attacking Japan may be a different story).

To say an attack from the north is immenent seems a bit rich, as they've been sabre-rattling for years (I accept I know nothing about the situation though). What I am afraid of, however, is the USA going in guns blazing. South Korea has no ability to tell the US military to get lost (who does?), and considering the way the Korean military follow the US MPs around bars in Seoul, I suspect they'd feel compelled to fight too.

Every time I'm out and about in Seoul, I run into US troops. (see my Bullet without butterfly wings post) The one GI i spoke to at length one night believed that if the US pulled out of South Korea, the north would attack instantly. I think that disregards a lot of history and present circumstances. The week I moved here, the north and south announced they were planning on going to the Beijing Olympics as one nation. Is it politicking or is it progress? Who knows?

The USA has done a lot for the Southies economically, developmentally and educationally, and the quality of life here is relatively good for most working people. It wouldn't be the same without US involvement. However, the US might be undoing a natural peace process that could have been over by now.

I'm not saying that North Korea isn't dangerous, I'm just suggesting the idea the place is run by a madman isn't necessarily true, not necessarily false either, but I'm taking news reports with a grain of salt. Kim Jong Il has absolutely no intention of attacking China (the North Korean/Chinese border is nothing more than a relatively lightly guarded river), which suggests to me the guy has some semblance of logical thinking. The greatest atrocity in North Korea is the famine that's killing kids every day, not the nuke testing (personal opinion). How many kids died of famine in Iraq between 1991 and 2003? Um, lots. Due to what? UN sanctions. To me, this suggests sanctions don't harm the power of the people doing the harm. Just ask Zimbabweans. Oh, sorry, you can't.