Day 23:
Life over here is crazy with work; however life in Korea has been interesting to say the lest. Ryan and I have found ourselves feeling like the general population when it comes to most of the thoughts, fears, anger and sadness when we think of how things are between North and South Korea. Families have been separated, families in North Korea are starving to death, and for the most part the North seems to bully the South. People here are harmless for the most part (you always have whack-a-doos) and are all very sweet, genital, and peaceful. I find it hard to say this now but I feel strongly when I say I think South Korea has taken things just a little to far and have even taken Christmas to a whole new level of missing the point.
The following are a few different articles I have found about South Korea lighting a huge tree up and singing Christmas songs up by the DMZ boarder as a type of propaganda. I do not agree with this because I do not feel South Korea can honestly say that they are doing this because they want to share the stories of Christ birth with them or that they want to share God with them. That maybe part of why they are doing this; however I am sure most of the reason behind it, I believe, is to poke at North Korea.
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Korea Tension Shifts to Tree
South Korean Christians sing in front of a 30-meter-tall steel Christmas tree that would be visible to North Koreans living near the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)Having stared down North Korea Monday during its firing drill from Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea braced on Tuesday for a possible backlash to a new mission: turning on Christmas lights near the demilitarized zone that separates the two countries.
Seoul-based Yeouido Full Gospel Church was scheduled to hold the lighting ceremony Tuesday at a military-controlled hill called Aegibong, about two miles from the border. The church has rigged up the lights on a frame in a shape of a giant Christmas tree that can be seen as far as the North Korean city of Kaesong.
The lighting ceremony had been an annual event until 2004, when the countries agreed to halt cross-border propaganda. Communist North Korea had protested that the illuminations were part of a South Korean effort to spread religion in the North.
However, after the sinking of the South Korean warship the Cheonan in March, killing 46 sailors, Seoul said it would restart propaganda efforts against Pyongyang. It threatened to resume loudspeaker broadcasts of anti-regime and pro-democracy messages over the border, although they have yet to resume. The North has said it would shoot at the speakers.
Now officials are concerned that North Korea might direct fire at the Aegibong lights. Marines have been placed on guard to protect the “tree,” which is within range of North Korean gunfire.
Yonhap News cited a military official as saying: “On the eve of the lighting, more troops from a border North Korean military unit came out for patrol than usual.”
North Korea isn’t adverse to using religion for its own ends. On Monday, the state news agency issued an article noting that various Christian groups had called for South Korea to cancel its artillery drill on Yeonpyeong.
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South Korea Christmas Tree Challenges Northern Threats
South Korea is bracing for a possible backlash to what some might find a fairly harmless attempt at spreading holiday cheer, after erecting a stylized Christmas tree near the demilitarized zone that separates the country from North Korea, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
The giant 100-foot-tall tree, which reportedly can be seen from the North Korean city of Kaesong, had been a yuletide tradition until 2004, when both countries agreed to halt cross-border propaganda. According to BusinessWeek, North Korea demanded the display be dismantled after dismissing the tree as an effort to spread religion.
On hand for Tuesday’s lighting ceremony at a military-controlled hill called Aegibong were the Seoul-based Yeouido Full Gospel Church, which had planned a program of traditional carols. But while the South may be challenging the North’s omnipresent threats with holiday cheer, security remains a huge concern. “Marines are maintaining the highest level of alertness around the hill,” a defence ministry spokesman was quoted by the AFP as saying.
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Going out on a limb
S. Korea's Christmas-tree taunt
AP
Last Updated: 3:59 AM, December 22, 2010
Posted: 2:14 AM, December 22, 2010
GIMPO, South Korea -- As troops stood guard and a choir sang carols, South Koreans yesterday lit a massive steel Christmas tree that overlooks the world's most heavily armed border and is within sight of officially atheistic North Korea.
The lighting of the tree after a seven-year hiatus marked a pointed return to a tradition condemned in Pyongyang.
The provocative ceremony was also a sign that President Lee Myung-bak's administration is serious about countering the North's aggression with measures of its own in the wake of an artillery attack that killed four South Koreans last month.
While the North has made some conciliatory gestures in recent days -- indicating to a visiting US governor that it might allow international inspections of its nuclear programs -- Seoul appears unmoved.
Pyongyang has used a combination of aggression and reconciliation before to extract concessions from the international community, and the resurrection of the tree-lighting at Aegibong is a signal that the South is ready to play hardball until it sees real change from the North.
Earlier, a South Korean destroyer prowled the sea and fighter jets tore across the skies in preparation for possible North Korean attacks a day after Seoul held a round of artillery drills from a front-line island.
After warning of deadly retaliation, North Korea said it would not fight back and told visiting New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson that it was prepared to consider ways to work with the South on restoring security along the tense border.
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South Korean Christmas tree signifies new war of words with North Korea
GIMPO, South Korea (AP) — As troops stood guard and a choir sang carols Tuesday, South Koreans lit a massive steel Christmas tree that overlooks the world’s most heavily armed border and is within sight of atheist North Korea.
The lighting of the tree after a seven-year hiatus marked a pointed return to a tradition condemned in Pyongyang as propaganda. The provocative ceremony — which must receive government permission — was also a sign that President Lee Myung-bak’s administration is serious about countering the North’s aggression with measures of its own in the wake of an artillery attack that killed four South Koreans last month.
While the North has made some conciliatory gestures in recent days — indicating to a visiting U.S. governor that it might allow international inspections of its nuclear programs — Seoul appears unmoved.
Pyongyang has used a combination of aggression and reconciliation before to extract concessions from the international community, and the resurrection of the tree lighting at Aegibong is a signal that the South is ready to play hardball until it sees real change from the North.
Earlier, a South Korean destroyer prowled the sea and fighter jets tore across the skies in preparation for possible North Korean attacks a day after Seoul held a round of artillery drills from a front-line island.
After warning of deadly retaliation, North Korea said it would not deign to fight back, and indicated to visiting New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson that it was prepared to consider ways to work with the South on restoring security along the tense border.
But a senior South Korean government official said the military would remain prepared for the possibility of a “surprise” attack in coming days. He spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
On Aegibong Peak, about a mile from the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula, marines toting rifles circled the Christmas tree as more than 100,000 twinkling lights blinked on. The brightly lit tree — with a cross on top — stood in stark relief to North Korea, where electricity is limited.
Choir members dressed in white robes trimmed in blue and wearing red scarves and Santa Claus hats gathered beneath the steel structure draped with multicolored lights, illuminated stars and snowflakes. An audience of about 200 listened as they sang “Joy to the World” and other Christmas carols.
“I hope that Christ’s love and peace will spread to the North Korean people,” said Lee Young-hoon, a pastor of the Seoul church that organized the lighting ceremony. About 30 percent of South Koreans are Christian.
The 100-foot-tall steel tree sits on a peak high enough for North Koreans living in border towns to see it and well within reach of their nation’s artillery. Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said an attack from North Korea was certainly possible but unlikely.
North Korea, officially atheist and with only a handful of sanctioned churches in Pyongyang with services for foreigners, warned that lighting the tree would constitute a “dangerous, rash act” with the potential to trigger a war.
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And there is a TON more out there on this and I am sure as the day gets going back home in the states more will come. I just for once want ask South Korea why? You have gotten you way and North Korea has backed off now its time for South Korea to act like the bigger person and back off.
This all just saddens me and now using a huge Christmas tree in this way just makes it all worse.
Well that is an update on the politic stuff for now, I hope to get a life update done before I head home for Christmas!
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