The Demise of the "Great Leader"

BREAKING NEWS:  Kim Jong-Il, the North Korean dictator, is dead. 

Today, my poor students had their 7th practice Suneung of the year, so I had the day off.  I slept in a bit, ate breakfast, and watched a few reruns of Grey's Anatomy on the international television channel, while chatting with some friends online.  As usual, I was simultaneously browsing through my online news sites when I read this monumental headline.

Within a few minutes of breaking, this story caused a palpable uproar in the media and social networking sites.  I, too, posted an immediate status update on Facebook, expressing my state of disbelief.  However, this sense of shock doesn't seem to be shared by native South Koreans.  In fact, this news barely got a shrug, let alone a reaction.  The most common response I've come across today is "진짜? (Really?)" and then they continue going about their day, as if nothing had happened. 

This underwhelming reaction is in direct contrast to how Americans reacted when Osama bin Laden was shot in the CIA raid or how Libyans reacted when Muammar Gaddafi was killed by NLA fighters.  In both these cases, people rushed to the streets, cheering in sheer jubilation.  The deaths of these two tyrannical dictators marked significant moral and symbolic victories for the War on Terrorism and the Libyan Civil War.  However, the death of North Korea's "great leader" fails to get a comparable reaction because his ultimate demise does little to impart change or instill hope in the hearts of Koreans.

In all likelihood, the death of Kim Jong-Il won't change anything.  The atrocities occurring in North Korea will likely continue under the rule of the late dictator's third and beloved son, Kim Jong-Un.  North Korea will still be a huge security and nuclear threat to both the U.S. and the world at large.  And lastly, the hope for a reunified Korea will remain a distant dream.  Given these facts, it makes complete sense as to why South Koreans aren't visibly shaken by this headlining news story.

My only gripe is when this ambivalent response is construed as "apathy" or a lack of care for the victims in North Korea.  Most South Koreans that I've come across seem well-aware and concerned about the atrocities that are occurring in North, ostensibly more than us, foreigners, or folks that live elsewhere in the world.  Unfortunately, the South Korean government and international community have done little to uncover or rectify the brutal policies that have been imposed by the North's tyrannical regime.  

But that is not to say that South Korean citizens don't care.  They're not expecting change because it hasn't happened in the past 50 years.  Rather than criticizing the South Korean people, we ought to direct our frustration and anger to the global community, who have a turned a blind eye to the confirmed accounts of murder, rape, slavery, forced starvation, and indefinite detention in concentration camps.  Until these atrocities are acknowledged on an international level, South Koreans will remain "apathetic," and rightfully so.

Regardless of what does or does not happen next, it's surreal to be living in Korea as this story is unfolding.  Right now, South Korean forces are increasing their "military capability" and "declaring emergency alert."  Despite the North's close proximity, I still feel safe (Don't worry about me, Mom!).  It's rather unlikely than anything drastic will occur following Kim Jong-Il's death.  But let's hope that his death instills in the global community an urgency to free North Koreans from the unimaginable horrors that they have endured from this dictator's rule.