Preserved Topic: Trouble in the West Sea...

I know things like this don't usually get posted here, but I'll give it a go anyway. Here's some background info.

I'm just really aggravated right now. OK, "pissed off" would be a better term. Why now? Why couldn't they just let us celebrate the World Cup while it lasted? What in God's name were they thinking?

I saw a news story on Saturday night, after the Turkey-Korea match. They showed an interview with a sailor, who shared his thoughts on the World Cup and the upcoming match. It was not aired before the match, but events that day suddenly made it a very important interview. Why? Because it is the last his friends and family will ever see of him. He's dead now, one of four who were killed in the battle. That's not to mention the thirty or so DPRK sailors who were killed.

It makes me sick and angry. Personally, I have never agreed with President Kim's "sunshine policy." Why? Because a policy deals with a government, and the North Korean government is a collection of irrational, megalomaniacal cult members. I have said time and time again that the sunshine policy will never work--the only way we will ever get through to the North is if there is a people's revolution. I truly understand the desire to help North Koreans (there are many divided families on the peninsula, so it's not simply a matter of "us versus them"), but you have to be an idiot to think the common people are ever going to see any of that food aid. That food is going straight into the bellies of North Korean soldiers, all of whom are told that South Korea is the devil incarnate.

Yes, Kim won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, but that prize is not going to bring peace to this peninsula. I don't care how many positive summit meetings the two leaders may have. Kim Jeong-il will smile and shake your hand and then turn around and stab you in the back. In fact, that's what happens all the time here.

I'm probably not making much sense here, and this may be a bit confusing to someone not familiar with the situation. I just needed to vent a little. Unfortunately, I don't feel that much better.

"cursed are the thinkers" Suho

being aware of humanity is a big thing to have to deal with. You have to realise that this is 'bigger' than you or I.

Let it go, bare no grudge or make no judgement, it is something that is beyond your control so getting worked up about it is in a way sort of ludicrous.

Let 'them' do what they have too

peace

Ludicrous? I don't think that reacting emotionally to the world around me is ludicrous.

I am, of course, well aware that this is bigger than me. Now that would be ludicrous--thinking that somehow this thing is not bigger than me. That's not going to change the way I feel about what has happened, though.

Also, if I may be so bold, I would say that distance from a situation allows one to look at said situation in a more objective way. In other words, try living in the middle of it.

If you are one of those enlightened souls who is at complete peace with the world and all its crap, then more power to you. I, however, have not quite reached that stage yet.

Still bitter and pissed off... don't mind me.

Well Master Suho...don't blame the leaders of South Korea...why? Because they offered the North Korean people a helping hand? Maybe that food doesn't reach the people...now whos fault is that? A gesture of humanitarism and help is not something that one should ever see as negative.

On the contrary...it shows that South Korea has no ill-will against the people of North Korea...and demonstrates just that. Such things do have a very powerful effect...and I'm sure that the people of North Korea know that...irregardless of the 'party line'...in today's world, information flows...

So why the attack? That should be obvious...the leaders of North Korea are desperate...and cornered animals are the most dangerous and unpredictable of all. You should consider exactly why this is so...and why North Korea did this. South Korea just had the one of the best world championships of all time (and I don't just mean the Korean team...). So, the North Koreans (the leadership...who else?) needed a way to 'annouce' to the world that, yes, they are still there. And that, yes, the problems of old still exist...but keep in mind that they are the remenants of a dead system...proven not to work...and that, yes, they too, shall fall.

Don't let these events cloud your humanity. Because that's exactly what the North is counting on. That's what they want. I'm pretty sure that there will be more...North Korea has suffered years of drought, starvation, and very hard times...and these faults lie at the feet of it's leadership...what better way to distract the people then a war? So I'm pretty sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg...be prepared for more of such 'posturing' and instigations...

Though I imagine that the South Koreans are pretty upset (who wouldn't be, considering the circumstances), and I feel deeply for the families of the dead soldiers, I feel that this is just the beginning...

WebShaman ~ Amen

WS - I don't blame the South Korean leaders... it just pisses me off to see the North Koreans take the aid and then turn around and spit on the country that helped them. Also, I don't think the sunshine policy should be abandoned, I just think we need to reassess what we are expecting from it. If we expect it to help the North Korean people and make their situation a little better, we will probably not be disappointed. However, if we expect it to somehow make the North Korean government more amenable to diplomacy, we will be sorely disappointed. It just doesn't work that way.

Here's a good example of what we're dealing with here: today, North Korea sent a letter to South Korea congratulating them on a successful World Cup. Either the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing in P'yongyang, or they are off their rockers. It's one or the other. Me, I think it's the latter. The North Korean leaders are duplicitous, manipulative, conniving thieves.

I suppose the thing that really gets to me is my helplessness in all this. North Korea and South Korea are two nations, but one people--yet they are separated by a paranoid, totalitarian regime. When I was in Mongolia, I saw a North Korean children's singing troupe perform. Young boys and girls stood on stage and sang songs about the Great Leader, Kim Il-Song. They spoke of him as if he were God. It amazed me on the one hand, and made me want to cry on the other. And all I could do was watch, and then come back to Korea and sit by while events over which I have absolutely no control unfold around me.

No, I'm not Korean, and I never will be. But there is a bond between me and this land, this people. I can never know the full extent of the suffering the Korean people have gone through, but it has been a part of my daily life for the past seven years. Most people learn to live with it, and I have as well, it's just at times like these it tends to get to me. Give me a few days and I'll be OK.

I found your closing comments interesting, especially the part about this being "just the beginning." My friend, this is nowhere near the beginning--the beginning happened over fifty years ago. This is just a continuation. The Korean War never officially ended, and North Korea's actions make it clear that they take this fact quite seriously.

Also, this is not intended to be a distraction by North Korea; they don't need to distract their people with a war. What it's about is fishing rights--the North Koreans want to catch more crabs, so their fishing boats encroach on South Korean waters. Then the warships come in and start blasting (this happens all the time, by the way). This is one reason why the sunshine policy will never achieve any political ends; we can give North Korea as much food as we like, and they'll still try to take what they don't have without even considering diplomacy. They don't consider the sunshine policy diplomacy, they consider it a handout.

I think I've ranted on long enough. Your most salient point, of course, can be summed up in "Don't let these events cloud your humanity." That is good advice, and I will follow it to the best of my ability.

Um.... I know this is emotionally charged... but it's probably a better topic for the Philosophy Forum...

...find it there...


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