사일팔 - April Revolution and Korea University

If anyone was near the main sqaure at KU (Korea University) today, they would have noticed loud korean traditional drums, colorful flags, and about a thousand students making noise for an event called 사일팔 (Sa Il Pal - presidential protest).  On this day in the year 1960, Korea University and a couple other universities played a significant role in Korean history.

Syngman Rhee was the first president of SK during the korean war and also immediately after.  After taking control, he used his power to arrest (and even kill) many of his opponents and after serving for two terms (the maximum allowed), he changed the constitution to allow him to stay longer.  Things were already pretty bad with election rigging, corruption in the government, and general discontent with the korean economy, but things began to snowball when a high school protester was discovered dead with the police at fault.  On april 18th, students from korea university started a non-violent protest against corruption and police violence - following this, the police chief called on gangs to attack them on the way home.  This sparked even more response, as the next day tens of thousands of students gathered before the presidential mansion and the police fired at them.  Soon after, president rhee stepped down from power and the second republic of south korea was established.

Today students honor those who risked their lives for democracy by remembering them in a run which is around 8 km from the school to the memorial hall.   IVF (the christian club I am part of) has a reputation for being more politically involved, but there were people at todays event grouped in clubs ranging from everything from astronomy to international relations. This event also serves as a space for people to protest other things - our club alliance group cheered for lower tuition, better working conditions for part time staff at KU, and more public space for students.  One of my club mates pictured below is sharing how we are losing club space (for small groups) and also did this chant thing for lower tuition.

The above picture was during our run to the memorial hall.  It was more of a walk at many parts as we were on the street and had to wait for traffic lights and such.  There were a lot of police that also were there to help guide traffic and such.  At the beginning, we all gathered in the main square of korea university.

We eat dinner together as a club afterwards on the street:

Though dictatorship was held off, things were quite unsatisfactory for South Koreans.  Many south korean politicians were involved with scandals related to corruption.  The previous president Lee was involved in many scandals, as was the one before him, Roh, who committed suicide in 2009.  Though I think the Korean people are critical of their leaders, what they really are hungry for is someone with integrity to lead their country.

 It is somewhat interesting for me to compare this with UBC, my home university.  It seems like the biggest problem we have is trying to get people to vote, and imagining this number of students gathering to run for 8 km for anything politically related is somewhat ridiculous.

Also in case anyone is interested, North Korea has continued to threaten the South and basically the response for most people is the same as before (none).  Next Month, I am going to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) and JSA (Joint Security Area) that separate NK from SK, which should be interesting.

North Korea

Hi again friends and family,

(I'm doing two posts today for making up for the hiatus.  Warning - this one is a little long)

Based on what has happened recently in the news, I thought it would be timely to do a post on North Korea and what my experience of it has been like in Seoul.  I don't claim to be any kind of expert on the matter, but I thought it might be interesting for people to hear about it from someone who is currently living in Seoul. If you are interested in learning more about this topic, I encourage you to research it for yourself!

First, a brief overview of the situation -

At the end of WWII, the Japanese occupation of Korea ceased, and the country was divided into two with the Soviet Union in control of the North and the US taking control of the South (1945).  A UN supervised election resulted in the creation of two separate governments (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea in the North and the Republic of Korea in the South), who both claimed ownership of the entire peninsula, leading to the Korean War (1950).  An armistice in 1953 resulted in a cease-fire, though technically the two countries remain at war to this day, separated by the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone, a 4 km wide boundary which is ironically probably the most militarized border in the world).  For the most part, North and South Korea have developed their separate ways, with South Korea experiencing huge economic growth in the past half century while the North is known as a Hermit Kingdom that has difficulty feeding its own people.

The relationship between North Korea and South Korea has always been strained, but there are often times of increased tension between the countries - now is an example of one such time.  North Korea has done a number of nuclear tests (most recently feb 12th) which have gotten a lot of attention in the international media.  Recently, the international community (United Nations) has responded by restricting trade of certain items to North Korea, including certain luxury goods which the elite of North Korea enjoy.  North Korea has since said it is withdrawing from the armistice (which actually it has violated in the past many times anyways) and is now entering a 'state of war' with south korea.  America has also demonstrated it's willingness to be at South Korea's side by flying two B-2 Stealth bombers, a move that North Korea sees as rehearsals for invasion and has since put its rockets on standby.  The South today has made clear that it will strike back quickly if the north stages any kind of attack on the south.

The two bombers were deployed more to send a message than provide any useful training, as the US military publicly announced the drill.  I'm not sure if the intention of the US was to make it clear to the North that they were serious or if it was meant as a reassurance to the South that they had the backing of their ally.  If the intention was for the latter, however, I don't think that they were very successful - the reason is quite simple:

Nobody in South Korea seems to care.

And I don't just mean about the bombers or the backing of America - I mean North Korea in general.  Things in Seoul have been terribly the same as last week or the week before, and if it wasn't for my pastor at a church for internationals or the English news, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't know about any of these current events at all.  I've asked a number of Koreans about this topic, and most of them think that there's nothing much to say - it's the same old stuff - North Korea threatens and then nothing happens.  Many of my housemates have already completed their military service - one of my roommates actually just finished this year and when I asked him why Koreans weren't worried about North Korea, he asked me what there was to be worried about (there are some people who are completely unaware of the issue, as well as I should mention others who are concerned, but I would say the general feeling is apathy).

This leaves me confused at the whole situation - the people who are worried most about North Korea are ironically the farthest away from it (Seoul is 50 km from North Korea).  Many people dismiss the threat of North Korea as one of three things.  Firstly, that this aggression is simply an act to establish the 30 year old supreme ruler of North Korea, Kim Jong Un.  There is also the explanation that this is an attempt to send a message to the US in hopes of starting discussion.  Or finally that this is a 'temper tantrum' that Kim is throwing to get what he wants from the international community.   In an actual war, North Korea is out numbered and out developed in every way compared to the combined US and South Korean armies.  However, North Korea does have the threat of nuclear weapons (weather or not this will actually be implemented).

I think that while there is no real concern over an all-out war, the biggest danger would be from a rash decision made from a desperate North Korea as a leader who boxes himself in with threats needs to do something unreasonable in order to save face.

...

Anyways, school is alright.  One of the buddy programs at Korea University is planning a trip to the DMZ, which I signed up for before this whole business (I wonder if it will be cancelled... ).  I want to make this blog more interactive, so if you feel like weighing in, please leave a comment below.  If you guys are interested, leave a question you would like me to ask my Korean roommates and maybe I'll do a post later with their responses!  Sorry again for the long post haha.

Fun Fun Party

Hello friends and family!

This post is about what I spent part of this past weekend doing -  I attended an IV3F MT (Members' Training) event called "Fun Fun Party".  I tried to communicate to my Korean friends how ridiculous the name of this retreat is, but apparently they have been using it for years and since nobody speaks English well enough to know how ridiculous it sounds, it has stuck.  MT is a beginning of year activity which almost every club here at Korea University has to build community and initiate freshman into their group.  The name is a bit of a misnomer as there is no actual training involved, but for most clubs typically involves a lot of drinking (a bit part of Korean university culture).

We went to a retreat centre (it's not as luxurious as I'm making it sound) and started of the evening with korean BBQ served by the older members of the club.  This was followed by ice breaking games, which were really creatively designed.  The first one we played involved a volunteer being given a secret characteristic - he or she then had to select 3 people from the group who identified most closely with said trait (for example, most likely to get married young) as the rest of the group tries to guess what the common thread is.

After a few more games we went outside for cheering.   I feel like the word cheering really doesn't convey the experience of what happened though - Korea University is pretty big on cheers (we had a 5 hour cheering rally at the beginning of the school year where we learned how to taunt our rival university, Yonsei).  There is an entire playlist of songs all with actions - a few people led us in the cheering but basically it was ridiculous as my university life in Canada really has nothing similar (the freshman rally really paled in comparison to this). I feel like the craziness of the school spirit has long ago surpassed cult-level, but perhaps that is just normal here.  I wanted to post a video, but apparently the uploader is not working right now, so you will just have to imagine it.

After this, we headed up to the main room again, where some of the leaders had turned off the lights and set up candles in the shape of a heart.  The new people went into the middle and other senior members were on the outside singing a song of blessing and love with ukulele accompaniment.  They even had a verse sung for each new person.  It's interesting to think about how different this was than most other MTs - IVF has a culture that really seeks to riase up, honour and bless those who are newest to the club, and the dedication that the more senior members do this with is really outstanding.

This was followed by basically staying up all night playing games (mafia etc.).  I believe I got an hour or two of sleep somewhere between 3 and 5 am.   Here is a photo of us the next morning!