Yesterday I had an interesting question posed to me which made me reflect. “In the current climate how safe do you feel in Korea?” My initial response was that it does remind me I don’t have a grab bag (the get the hell outta here bag) ready, but that I am also realistic that if something does happen it is unlikely I will be anywhere near home to be able to grab it.
Later yesterday afternoon I found myself further reflecting on this question and reading newspaper articles on the current climate. There is no doubt the current ROK and US exercises, Key Resolve and Foal Eagle have stirred things up although, from what I gather, no more so than usual when an exercise is underway. Then there is the new United Nations sanctions providing further restrictions on the North which was unanimously agreed to and North Korea stating that, in their view, the Armistice is now void. Adding further to the current climate is that the North is no longer talking to the South through Panmunjeom (the DMZ). Maybe I should be a little more concerned.
Then this morning I was greeted by a photo on the front page of the Korean Times which shocked me back into reality and out of any impact the North’s propaganda was having on me. If this is the military vessel the great one is using to get around in to do his inspections I think we’ll be ok. Either that or I am really becoming a local and just getting blasé about it all.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un waves while in a boat during his visit to the Wolnae Islet Defence Detachment in the western sector of the front line, which is near South Korea’s Baengnyeong Island: REUTERS/KCNA @ i.telegraph.co.uk
my Seoul to be 