A16 The World
R
KLMNO
For South Koreans, neighbor moves from
irritant to threat
Young fear new tensions with N. Korea could
affect security, economy
by Blaine Harden
seoul — In a college cafeteria here Thursday, a large-screen TV flashed breaking news of South Korean warships staging anti- submarine drills, dropping depth charges and firing big guns into the Yellow Sea. The na- val exercise took place in waters near where a North Korean sub- marine apparently fired a tor- pedo that sank a South Korean ship two months ago and killed 46 sailors.
At a table in the cafeteria, three civil engineering students wolfed down rice with spicy soup and fretted about what that sneak attack portends for their professional future. Echoing the fears of many young people in this rich, wired and achieve- ment-obsessed country, they said that never before in their lives has North Korea loomed so large —as a potential threat to person- al safety and as an irksome com- plication in career planning. “If this crisis continues for much longer, it will hurt my chances of getting a job,” said Yoo Youn-seong, 24, a senior at Chung-Ang University. “The stock market has gone down and international investors may de- cide to stop putting money into South Korea. I am also a little bit afraid the North will attack.” The March 26 sinking of South
Korea’s warship has metasta- sized in the past week into a ma- jor international security crisis. Seoul has disclosed detailed evi- dence linking Pyongyang to the attack and has canceled most economic links with the North. The Obama administration is pressuring China, the principal benefactor of North Korean lead- er Kim Jong Il, to support U.N. Security Council sanctions against his government. Gen. Walter L. Sharp, com-
mander of 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea, said Thursday that North Korea should “cease all acts of provocation.” In furious reaction, Kim’s gov- ernment, while indignantly de- nying that it sank the ship, has said it will cut all relations with South Korea. It added Thursday that it was unilaterally repealing military guarantees for the safety of cross-border exchanges be- tween the two Koreas. The move could lead to closing the Kaesong industrial complex, located just north of the heavily armed bor- der between two Koreas. It is the sole remaining symbol of eco- nomic cooperation between the countries.
But the ship-sinking crisis also has another dimension, one that is especially disorienting to young people in South Korea, many of whom have grown up thinking of North Korea as yes- terday’s irritant. Three years ago, in a poll con-
ducted before a presidential vote, only 3 percent of voters named North Korea as a primary concern. They were more con- cerned about economic growth and higher salaries. The young, many polls found, were partic- ularly indifferent to North Korea and the fulminations of its odd dictator. A “sunshine policy” that began
after a North-South summit in 2000 had seemed to diminish Kim’s menace. South Korea bought itself peace of mind by showering the impoverished North with food aid, fertilizer and economic investment. Polls here found that despite North Korea’s periodic petulance — ex- ploding small nuclear devices in 2006 and 2008 and launching a flurry of missiles — most South Koreans viewed Pyongyang as a manageable worry. The Cheonan incident appears
to have significantly altered that view.
“I never before factored in the possibility of a war,” said Kim Sun-young, 32, a researcher in molecular science at Yonsei Uni- versity in Seoul. “But I am now
CHUNG SUNG-JUN/GETTY IMAGES
South Korean war veterans and conservative protesters rally in Seoul against North Korea, which is accused of sinking a South Korean ship.
The poll echoed other recent
surveys showing that about 70 percent of South Koreans sup- port the government investiga- tion that blames Pyongyang for sinking the 1,200-ton warship. Young people in South Korea
YONHAP NEWS/VIA BLOOMBERG
A South Korean navy vessel conducts an exercise as part of moves that included anti-submarine drills and the firing of big guns.
very nervous and worried, espe- cially if there is a nuclear attack. It would mean the end. Maybe I will have to move to a different country.”
Six out of 10 South Koreans ap-
prove of the sanctions against the North that President Lee My- ung-bak announced this week, according to a Gallup Korea poll published Thursday in the Cho- sun Ilbo daily.
have in the past been highly crit- ical of Lee’s leadership. Lee has taken a relatively hard line on North Korea, cutting food aid while demanding that it improve human rights and end its nuclear weapons program. Shortly after Lee took office in 2008, tens of thousands of most- ly young people protested for months in downtown Seoul, de- nouncing support for the import of U.S. beef and demanding that he resign. Now, 51 percent of people in their 20s approve of his sanc- tions against North Korea, the Gallup Korea poll found. “South Korea has been giving,
and North Korea has been tak- ing,” said Park Jae-hyun, 24, a
senior at Yonsei University. “I think the North has been un- grateful, and I support Lee My- ung-bak’s strong response to the sinking of the ship.”
Still, a highly vocal coalition of young people, labor activists, op- position members and left-lean- ing intellectuals does not trust Lee’s government. Web sites here brim over with assertions that its investigation of the ship’s sink- ing was a fraud. Kim Jo-Young, 20, a nursing student at Yonsei University, said she suspects the Cheonan was blown up by South Korean plot- ters to enhance Lee’s popularity. Yet she also thinks the risk of a
conflict with North Korea is ris- ing, and she fears for her career. “I feel like I really can’t live in South Korea anymore,” she said. “I am personally very stressed.”
hardenb@washpost.com
Special correspondent Yoonjung Seo contributed to this report.
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