July 11, 2008: A South Korean tourist was fatally shot this past Friday after wandering into a restricted area of the Kumgangsan Mountains tourism zone in North Korea. This is currently the top story in South Korea. The tourist, a 53 year old housewife named Park Wang-ja, was shot in the chest and leg after crossing through a wire fence, which was labeled with warnings that the area was off limits. The details of her death are sketchy, at best, and should be taken with a grain of salt since they come directly from the North Korean soldier who killed her. The story states that she was spotted by a North Korean soldier, on guard duty, who told her to halt. After ignoring several of these orders, Park attempted to flee despite the soldier’s first warning shot. She was subsequently shot to death.

Articles from the Yonhap News detail the South Korean government’s response that the shooting by a North Korean soldier cannot be justified. Despite this, I am appalled by the lack of emotional outrage over this tragic event by the South Korean populace. The Hankyoreh was quick to publish its own take on the matter as well in an article entitled: “Tragic incident at Mt. Geumgang.” Brian, a high profile blogger living in South Korea, was quick to point out this statement from the paper in the same article:

We in the South must not, however, respond too emotionally. While an inquiry does need to take place, it at least appears to have been an accidental occurrence. It needs to be kept separate from the Mount Geumgang tourism project and the Gaeseong (Kaesong) industrial complex and the whole of inter-Korean relations. There must be no careless intensification of military tension between the two sides.

Note that the Hankyoreh is a Korean publication at the forefront of the mad cow hysteria that has swept South Korea over the past few months. Brian also conveniently pointed out several instances, which bring the Hanky’s journalistic integrity to question. Namely, how does a publisher reconcile the fact that it has called on its citizens to maintain an aura of calm, despite the fact that a helpless citizen was just killed by an armed soldier, while going out of its way to encourage overly-emotional protests, against American beef, on the basis of false information?

Anyway, I digress. The point of this article is to point out that I have yet been able to discern any significant emotional response, toward the incident, from the Korean public. Perhaps it is simply part of a larger, cultural rationale that I will never be able to understand as a foreigner. After all, doesn’t it make more sense to put collective efforts behind discovering the “real” circumstances of the Park Wang-ja’s death rather than protesting beef which, based on secure, scientific rationale, poses little to no harm to a single person in your country? Despite, these appeals it doesn’t look like this mindless behaviour will change anytime soon. A quick scroll to Yonhap’s front page today reveals that the rest of the news media is preoccupied with Japan’s claim to the Dokdo Islands.