The Day After

I'm back. Who knows how long I will be able to keep this up, but here I am again, typing over my Cheerios and coffee in the 20 minutes I have left before having to skip off to work. Let's hope a pattern is beginning to form.

Yesterday, as I'm sure all of you already know, we got attacked by that naughty neighbor to the North. As in 'we,' I mean Korea. And as in 'Korea' I mean a small fishing island that lies 12km off of the coast of the North and more than 100km from the South. There have been a few instances in the past, but is the first time since the ceasefire was signed after the Korean war (there was never a peace treaty, so the war never actually ended) that the dispute took to the land and the first time it involved civilians. Since the sinking of the ROK Cheonan ship a few months back, and this recent event has many fearful of the possibility that all-out war is imminent. Looking at the big picture (of which I don't have the time to dig into right now, but may soon), I think it's a bit premature to freak out. The US and ROK did defy North Korean concerns and were in the middle of a massive military live-fire exercise, just off the N.K. coast. I will say it was uncalled for, but to claim that it was totally 'unprovoked' would be stretching the truth. Time will tell if this is just another chapter in a 60 year game of political muscle flexing or if it's different this time. My guess is that Kim Jong Ill's dying, and his son and heir (who was very recently named a four-star general) needs a 'major military victory' to help make the inevitable transition easer. As I said, it's too early to freak out, though that doesn't mean I won't be keeping a close eye on the situation. For now, I just hope that this doesn't send the value of the won back down to the basement level it was a few months ago.

It's already time for work. Sorry. I hoped to talk about more than just the shells, but it looks like that will have to wait. On a side note, I did buy my plane tickets to Malaysia for the winter holiday. Should be great!

Happy Thanksgiving, and talk to you soon.

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