(A satellite image of the electric lights in North and South Korea. I live within the big white bird lime splat)
I found this quote from the second link sort of disquieting:
"One possible interpretation of the sinking of the Cheonan is that the situation in North Korea is so bad and the regime so desperate that it believes risking annihilation is its only option."
I first heard about the sinking of the Cheonan in late March shortly after I arrived while trying to make conversation with my co-workers in the school lounge. I swapped an American cigarette for a Korean with the history teacher when a report came on the TV. I asked for an interpretation and he told me a South Korean battleship cracked in half in the Yellow Sea killing 46 sailors and some people thought North Korea was responsible but in his opinion it was simply a matter of an aging ship that couldn't take the weight of the crew. Knowing little about the physics of iron ships that float on water yet knowing that my new cell phone came installed with an emergency number to call if you witnessed any North Korean spy activity I accepted this as a rational explanation and was impressed that the guy wasn't caught up in nationalistic outrage that could lead to paranoid, hysterical finger pointing. But now that a scientific investigation carried out by a conglomerate of nations including the U.S. has determined that no plausible interpretation of the data can be made other than that a North Korean submarine torpedoed the Cheonan I'm not sure what to believe.
North Korea absolutely denies any responsibility for the ship's sinking. South Korea's moderate president has stated that he will only take prudent actions in response. But what is really going on is hard to figure.
I'm sort of ashamed to admit that if I was reading about this from Southern California some crude Medieval part of me might silently hope for a war just to resolve the weird mystery of North Korea. The fact that I live within artillery striking range of North Korea now changes that. Wandering like an enchanted fool through the life infused thoroughfares that wind between the skyscrapers of Seoul for the past couple of months has given me perspective to really comprehend the horror that would result if death suddenly rained from the sky.
What I find interesting about this is that the two countries are like arguing siblings who each have chosen radically differing paths in personal evolution . The mutual blood-tie connection runs deep and lurking behind South Korea's cheerful good times optimism founded upon getting with the World program and successfully building up a rapidly growing nation enjoying all the benefits of 3rd world development there is a deep sadness over the rift with their self-alienating Northern brother who chose a Stoic life in pursuit of isolated self-sufficiecey to maintain ideals of cultural purity. Strangely the North did this by adopting a political system dreamed up by a German philosopher in an English library in the 1800's. The whole situation is filled with so many paradoxical nuances and complications that it's seems impossible to grasp. The two countries are literally and philosophically polar opposites yet there is an ancient family connection existing that is palpable today and it seems each is somewhat envious of what the other has accomplished. The South admires the cultural fortitude of the North's absolute devotion towards maintaing the pride and cultural identity of the race while the North envies the economic and social success of the South.
From a philosophical standpoint this can be described as a large scale example of the Law of Three in action as described by my favorite philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff. It states that two polar opposites, a positive and a negative, an affirming force and a denying force, throughout all of reality, struggle against one another until a third force develops which neutralizes the interaction. Just what form that third force will take is what I would like to know. I'm almost 100% certain absolute warfare can be ruled out. It would be too devastating for either side.
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