Island attack gets attention of South Korean youth
SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's young men and women have gotten used to living with a belligerent neighbor. They've learned to brush aside the threatening language from North Korea. Routine air-raid drills didn't mean much to them.
Until last week.
That's when the North shelled South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island — killing two civilians along with two marines — and suddenly, young people were paying attention.
The attack was the closest brush with warfare for this generation — born long after the Korean War ended in 1953 with a truce but not a peace treaty.
"I was very scared," said Seo Ki-don, a well-dressed 19-year-old student hanging out in a coffee shop in the trendy Seoul neighborhood of Shinsa-dong. [this is less than 5 minutes from my house lol]
He got a call from a friend in the military whose unit had been told to prepare for war. In South Korea, young men are required to serve two years in the armed forces, and Seo's tour is due to start next year.
"I was actually, first of all, scared for my friend," he recalled, "and then I realized that would be my situation in the future."
The possibility of more clashes was raised again Friday when South Korea's incoming defense minister said the military would bomb the North if it stages another similar attack.
"In case the enemy attacks our territory and people again, we will thoroughly retaliate to ensure that the enemy cannot provoke again," nominee Kim Kwan-jin told a confirmation hearing. The hearing is a formality as South Korea's National Assembly does not have the power to reject Lee's appointment.
The tough words came as President Lee Myung-bak's government faced intense criticism that its response to
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101204/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_clash#North Korea's attack was weak.
Skirmishes occur periodically along the two Koreas' disputed maritime border, but the Nov. 23 assault on an island famous for its delicious crabs was the first since the Korean War to target a civilian area. Two of the dead were construction workers whose bodies were found in the rubble.
The two dead marines were in their 20s, and their sacrifice has captured the hearts and minds of young South Koreans.
Yoo An-na said she was horrified when she first heard about the deadly attack on Twitter.
"I thought, 'Is this really happening? Could war really break out in our country?'" the 26-year-old smartphone app designer said.
Her mother called, saying: "An-na, war could happen. North Korea is acting very dangerously."
More than a week later, Yoo's feelings have shifted back toward indifference, even as tensions remain high.
"Now I feel more like, 'Whatever,' " she said with a smile, iPhone in hand as she waited for a friend at a bus stop in Seoul.
Many young people poured out their grief, worry and anger online.
Seo, the student entering the military next year, said his friends' anger exploded on Facebook and Twitter.
"A lot of Koreans were expressing hatred (for North Korea) on their Facebook statuses," he said. "And also I did — in not-so-good language — and a lot of people seemed to follow it and wrote comments."
His own post, he said with a sheepish smile, cursed North Korea and warned: "Don't mess with us."
The initial shock gave way to anger, he said.
"I think people weren't really freaked out," Seo said. "It's just they were really mad that North Korea keeps doing this, but we can't do anything about it. The government's just afraid."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101204/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_clash
