Comment Re:War time (Score 1) 90
I think the best way I could describe it is: most people, but specifically those under 30-35, consider DPRK as some kind of media fantasy. It exists to them, but they've never been touched by it. Seoul is a huge, rich, confident city and it seems almost (tragically?) comical how close it is to the northern border. But I think that the vast majority of people go about their lives with barely a second thought to what's up there, except when something big happens.
Then the deep seated nationalism of South Koreans shines through (sometimes alarmingly). The shooting of an unarmed 53 year old woman at Mt Kumgang (that I had the honour of visiting two years previously), and the sinking of the Cheonan are the two most recent examples. The invasion drills I mentioned above consisted of sirens, people in yellow uniforms seemingly appearing out of nowhere, and all traffic and pedestrians brought to a standstill. The whole thing would last a couple of minutes, and it was pretty eery each time it happened. These kinds of things, combined with the National Security Law as in the article, make the thought of DPRK and the threat it actually poses ever-present, if not immediate. The nuclear threat is alarming, sure, but I think most South Koreans are aware enough to know that it's still technically unlikely, and also... the Americans are still there, lots and lots of them. The deterrence against North Korea right now is very serious.
I'm cautiously optimistic that there will be some kind of reasonable outcome to this standoff in the long run, perhaps 30 years from now. Koreans tend to think of re-unification as inevitable, and they're in no real hurry considering how much it would cost them. They've been invaded and fought back numerous times in their history, and in their collective heart (and that's quite a collective) they feel it's a matter of time.
Or at least, that's the way I've interpreted all this as well as an outsider can.