Wilkine Brutus interviews a South Korean and visits the North Korean border.
The majority of us in the expat community in South Korea are not fazed by the North Korean threats. We’ve grown quite accustomed to the ongoing political tug-of-war.
We’ve learned from the South Koreans: North Korea has cried wolf enough. Stay calm and wait for diplomacy to avoid war.
There isn’t any footage of tourists and foreign residents fleeing the country. There isn’t any footage of local Koreans preparing to find a safe haven. Despite the ubiquitous provocations in the past, the media has managed to turn this routine threat into burgeoning catastrophe. South Koreans, on the other hand, are used to it and so are we.
We’re bombarded by this warmongering narrative. Our relatives and family members are obviously concerned. Ironically, we’re concerned by the over-coverage—is it bringing about an unnecessary anxiety in the public sphere?
Besides, we’re simply living day-to-day in South Korea. We’re going to work, meeting at coffee shops and bars, and the sweating out our workweek at the gym. The expat community is also socioeconomically settled in South Korea. It’s quite difficult to just…leave.
A few expats, even Koreans, are starting to internalize the over-coverage—an uncanny apprehension is hovering over us. Nonetheless, we still aren’t fazed by the threats.
This video features a quick interview with a young South Korean, a trip to the North Korean border, and a few musings on the 2013 heightened rhetoric from the North Korean regime.
Pyongyang warned us to evacuate; but—the attention-seeking regime warnings are not shocking and the level of redundancy is quite annoying. Most of us [in the expat community] won’t take the ongoing threats at face value. We’re faced with a difficult conundrum, but it seems easier to continue settling in Korea than be forced to depart.
I hope this video balances the media’s flirtation with this “crisis.”