美国国家公共电台 NPR Calm In Seoul As The North Korea Question Grows More Urgent

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KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

While the U.S. and China to sort out how to respond to North Korea's test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, little has changed in South Korea. NPR's Elise Hu reports from Seoul that life is more or less going on as normal.

ELISE HU, BYLINE¹: On the bustling² sidewalks near Seoul's Yonsei University, packs of students stream in and out of skincare stores, dessert cafes and coffee shops. College senior Esther Bang is caught up on the headlines...

ESTHER BANG: There were some news that are saying the launch was successful.

HU: ...But beyond that, seemingly unconcerned.

BANG: I think it's just, like, a whatever attitude that we are having.

HU: Even a North Korean milestone³ - launching a missile that could threaten the South's longtime ally, the United States - isn't enough to rattle⁴ people here or shake up any routines.

BANG: It's, like, so common to hear the news, and this kind of conflict have been going on for, like, 50 years.

HU: South Korea has lived under the threat of attack by its hostile northern neighbor for so many decades that it has a desensitizing effect.

BONG YOUNGSHIK: So this is not an unusual situation for most of South Koreans to deal with.

HU: That's North Korea researcher Bong Youngshik of the Seoul-based think tank Asan Institute. He says the general public's relative calm may actually be helpful during a time of heightened geopolitical tension.

BONG: Well, the calmness pervasive⁵ among South Koreans can be a good asset for the leadership, but that does not mean that South Koreans do not care about what kind of North Korean policy the South Korean government would make. They do care about national security policy.

HU: South Koreans voted in a new president, Moon Jae-in, in May. He campaigned on a platform of improving relations with North Korea. With Moon at the helm, Bong says there's growing calls for diplomatic overtures⁶ to Pyongyang, especially since other options like a military strike would be so catastrophic.

BONG: There is a growing support in favor of giving diplomacy⁷ a chance in South Korea, of course in China and even in the United States.

HU: While the United States has not been willing to meet with North Korea unless Pyongyang agreed to put denuclearization on the table, President Moon has a less-ambitious short-term goal. He has said he's willing to talk to North Korea even if it's just to get to a freeze, a pause of Pyongyang's nuclear program.

SUE MI TERRY: Maybe a pause as a short-term solution is possible.

HU: Former CIA analyst⁸ Sue Mi Terry recently met with North Koreans in back-channel conversations. She says for talks to get somewhere, the U.S. and its allies would have to be prepared to give something up.

TERRY: Pause could be possibly on, but that would mean for us to accept North Korea as a nuclear state, and that's very important for the North Koreans.

HU: And that's something the U.S. has so far been unwilling⁹ to do. But this type of question - denuclearization versus¹⁰ a freeze - is something workaday Koreans like Lim Sang-woo say they're happy to leave to the policymakers.

LIM SANG-WOO: My friends - we never debate about that because for us, that topic is not that popular.

HU: It's not that he's unaware¹¹ of the consequences of something going wrong on the Korean peninsula.

LIM: If they try to attack Seoul by missiles, then maybe Seoul will be devastated¹² but not only Seoul.

HU: Being under an existential threat for so long means you learn to live with it.

LIM: You know if you come here, it's not that dangerous place I think.

HU: Here, all the talk of a North Korean threat is just part of the daily noise. Elise Hu, NPR News, Seoul.