As I hit my 6 month marker here in Korea I start to feel the tinyest bit of uneasiness. The reason stemming from the tension between North and South Korea.
I was here when the South Korean military ship was sunk off the coast between North and South Korea in disputed waters. It was recently discovered that it was the fault of North Korean and not due to the fact that the ship was not well maintained. So, South Korea cut off all trading ties with North Korea and the tension is building up. Word on the street is that China is backing North Korea in this fight while the US will step in and help South Korea.
What makes me nervous is the unpredictability of North Korea. It's like you never want to get into a fight with a crazy man because you never know what they might do. You might be bigger, better, and smarter but they will fight with no self preservation making them all the more dangerous. That's what North Korea reminds me of.
So in this time of tension I've been getting e-mails just to be prepared for the worst. They say most likely that nothing will happen but we need to be ready just in case. So now I have to make the effort to register with the US Embassy in South Korea so that they know where I am and can get me out if need be. I also was sent the evacuation place where we are supposed to go. But the thing is that it's realatively far away. I would have to travel a good 2-3 hours to get to the evacuation place in Daegu! The thing is that it would only take about 5 hours for people coming from the boarder all the way to Gwangju. Would that be enough time to evacuate especially factoring the delay with the relay of the messages?
Well, whatever. I'm not really worried at all and neither is anyone else. It's just nice to know that if something does happen I'll be prepared.
