By Emma McGrath, News Staff
In response to intensified threats from North Korea against South Korea and the United States, Korean-American students at Northeastern are feeling wary but largely nonplussed.
“The US media makes it sound much more severe than it is,” Katherine Yom, a freshman international business major, said. “If you look at South Korean media, they’re really not concerned about it.”
Since December 2011, Kim Jong-Un, son of previous dictator Kim Jong-Il, has headed North Korea’s regime. In recent weeks the government has issued a barrage of aggressive rhetoric against South Korea and its allies, threatening to engulf them in a “sea of fire.” The remarks followed annual US-South Korean military drills and a new round of UN sanctions punishing the North for its nuclear ambitions.
Yom, a performance coordinator for Northeastern’s Korean American Student Association (KASA), said tensions between the North and South have become a way of life for Koreans and their families overseas.
“It’s something that’s been going on for years,” she said. “They’ve always threatened the South, especially when there’s a new president [sic].”
Ester Lee, a freshman Spanish and international affairs student who is also a performance coordinator for KASA, agreed with Yom.
“It’s somewhat expected,” she said. “It’s been a pattern that North Korea pressures and sees how far the South Korean government will stretch to cooperate with them.”
Lee, who spent eight years in South Korea and whose father still lives there, added that while the situation is more worrisome than in years past, North Korea’s threats are mostly blustering.
“This time it’s a little more serious, I’d say. But if I had to predict whether there was going to be war, I’d say it’s not going to happen,” she said.
Brian Park, a freshman business major and representative for Northeastern’s Pan Asian American Council (PAAC), said North Korea’s hostility results from the incompetence of its new leader.
“I think Kim Jong-Un is weaker than his father,” Park said. “He’s new – inexperienced. The political hierarchy inside North Korea isn’t as stable as when Kim Jong-Il was there.”
Park was born in Buffalo, N.Y., but moved to South Korea shortly thereafter. Nine years later, he returned to the United States. His parents and relatives remain in South Korea.
“To a certain degree, [Park’s relatives are] worried, but realistically, we don’t think anything substantial will happen to threaten our national security,” he said.
Yom, whose family lives in the Seoul area, said the North will likely refrain from attacking, as they have “nothing to gain from it.”
“If they attack South Korea or the U.S., they’re going to face retaliation,” she said. “Realistically, the U.S. could easily destroy the North with its more advanced technology. South Korea could do the same.”
But Suzanne Ogden, a professor of political science at Northeastern who focuses on the Asian region, said in an email interview that North Korea might not be operating with gain or loss in mind.
“NK is an ‘irrational’ state actor, i.e., its leaders don’t seem to factor in the consequences of their own rhetoric or actions,” Ogden said. “Kim Jong-Un just might launch a missile at Japan or the U.S. That means we are more willing, potentially, to give him what he wants.”
Though she remains doubtful of the likelihood of armed conflict, Yom expressed concern for one South Korean demographic: young men facing military conscription.
“They can call you at any time,” she said. “Everyone wants to avoid war, but this stuff is unpredictable. It is war, after all.”
