Westport Takes Notice of North Korea's Saber Rattling

After North Korea attacked the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong last week, relations between the two nations has sunk to its lowest point since the Korean War. Up to 200 shells were fired at the tiny island killing four, wounding many more and destroying homes.

Last weekend, in the border town of Paju, scores of South Koreans took to the streets protesting that President Myung-bak was being too soft in his response to the North's attack. But do South Koreans really want their president to get tough with Kim Jong Il?

"It is a very sensitive situation," said Westporter Ellie Kim, who moved to the U.S. from Seoul 17 years ago leaving the rest of her family behind. "The older people are very scared and the younger people who didn't live through the war are very angry. They all worry there will be a war. The island that was attacked is very tiny and everybody knows each other—I have friends there who lost their homes."

In reaction to the protests, Kim said that South Koreans are very gentle people and while they want a tough leader, nobody wants war.

"It's too late for apologies but not too late for talk," said Kim who owns the Compo Farm flower shop on 392 Post Road E with her husband. "If North Korea can explain the reason they attacked then maybe South Korea can find a way out other than war. Everybody wants North Korea to be reasonable but I think Kim Jong Il and his son want to control the situation by making us scared."

The saber rattling from Kim Jong Il and his son Kim Jong-eun (the newly appointed 26-year-old four star general and heir apparent) was accompanied by threats that North Korea stood "ready to annihilate the South's stronghold" and create "a merciless shower of fire" if its sovereignty was violated.

The deadly show of force came days before a planned joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea in the Yellow Sea that included strikes by South Korean warships and the USS George Washington aircraft carrier. A weekend statement from the North warned that such exercises could escalate to the region to "the brink of war."

North Korea's big brother China also warned against military exercises without its permission and since the Yeonpyeong shelling has not publicly condemned the attack.

But in a recent mass document dump WikiLeaks disclosed that, among other things, senior Chinese officials said China is fed up with Kim Jong Il's antics, doesn't view North Korea as useful, wouldn't intervene if the state collapsed and believes Korea should be reunified under Seoul's control so long as the US military doesn't move past the DMZ dividing the two Koreas.

An investigation found that North Korea was responsible for the sinking of South Korean Naval vessel The Cheonan, earlier this year resulting in the loss of 46 South Korean sailors. The incident prompted President Lee Myung-bak, to promise retaliation if further attacks occurred and was reported to be the catalyst for Sunday's joint military exercise. Back in July, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had vowed the US was going to send a "clear message" to Pyongyang.

"America, unfortunately, failed to do so," said Gordon Chang, author of Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World, (Random House, 2001). "China, by warning Washington not to hold the exercise, is just raising the stakes, creating a confrontation where none need exist. The US postponed the exercise in the summer in the hopes of placating China and North Korea. And what was the result?  The Chinese gloated and the North Koreans shelled the South Korean island on Tuesday. Pyongyang saw that Washington could be intimidated, and that was a big green light for further belligerent acts. Weak policies never work with Kim Jong Il."

While all this muscle flexing won't necessarily lead to war, the South is preparing for the possibility and a whirlwind of diplomatic talks over the weekend in Seoul between Chinese and South Korean officials sought to reduce tensions. Additionally, the chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly has scheduled a visit to Beijing this week.

"Since the armistice ending the Korean War in 1953, Kim and his dad have committed horrible acts against the United States and South Korea," said Chang, who lived and worked in China and Hong Kong for almost two decades and is also the author of The Coming Collapse of China (Random House, 2001). "…By failing to impose consequences, the world created the conditions for even more deadly crimes."

Locally, the University of Bridgeport brought in a number of South Korean students in 1992 when an arm of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church bailed the failing institution out of bankruptcy by donating more than $100 million via the church-affiliated Professors' World Peace Academy. UB's spokesperson did not respond to a request regarding the PWPA or the number of South Korean students currently in attendance by press time.

Still, many fear the North may not be done with their scare tactics anytime soon and that further acts of aggression might be a way for the North Korean leader to set the stage for the succession process.

"It is very sad," said Kim, the co-owner of the Westport flower shop. "The two countries have the same culture and speak the same language. South Koreans are very forgiving people and I hope they will find a way to bring peace."