I quite agree, and shall happily do so. (My own relatives are uncomfortably close in Japan.)

I don't think anything is likely to happen, But I do wish Obama had approached China with a role for it. China has no interest in seeing a war start in Korea. But in planning naval war exercises in the region is coming too close to reviving a sixty year old war.

I expect tense times as a result of those exercises. But I also think it will pass over.

Praying with you for your son seeler.

You have to know Korea is on our prayer list here at my home. My wife and stepsons are South Korean, as is my extended family on her side (including my niece who not too long ago spent a year living in Canada), my mother-in-law who I love dearly, and more. One of my sons is living in Seoul, and here in Canada I have many Korean friends now.

From the Koreans here who I've met, it seems both North and South want to see the countries eventually reunited. The difference being that the South would work things out peacefully while the North would simply invade and take over the South.

I pray for the safety of all, and do ask that people keep my Korean friends and family in their thoughts and prayers.  

I wish I had more faith in "nothing will happen"  but judging by the looney in charge, I don't know.  I am uncertain whether he thinks he can win by numbers, the US won't step in, China will help, or exactly what his grey cells are telling him.  Whatever happens, in the short term, it won't be good.

But I will pray for all to pan out.

IT

Russ

The dangerous possibility is that the loony in charge is no longer in charge. There is strong resentment against his choice of his younger son as a sucessor. The resentment comes from military leaders and other powers in North Korea.

The old looney used these artificial crises to blackmail western powers, usually for money. It's hard to guess what the new looneys, if they are the ones behind this,  have the same motive.

First my thoughts go out to Seeler and her son, may peace find you all.

I believe this is also the case.  According to a number of news reports including those coming out of Asia,  North Korea had asked South Korea for aid due to the recent flooding.  It appears shooting at South Korean soldiers has been a successful negotation tactic in the past. 

However, what is a little different this time is the response of the South Korean people who are outraged at civilian casualities.....

Excerpt from NYTimes South Korea Experiences a Stirring for Revenge  Nov 27 2010 (note, if you want to read the complete article you will be asked to register for a free account)

[...]

After years of backing food aid and other help for the North despite a series of provocations that included two nuclear tests, many South Koreans now say they feel betrayed and angry.

“I think we should respond strongly toward North Korea for once instead of being dragged by them,” said Cho Jong-gu, 44, a salesman in Seoul. “This time, it wasn’t just the soldiers. The North mercilessly hurt the civilians.”

That is not to say that he or other South Koreans will really push for a South Korean strike; people south of the border are well aware that the North could devastate Seoul with its weapons.

But the sentiments reflect a change of mood in a country where people have willed themselves to believe that their brotherly ties to the North would override the ideological chasm between the impoverished Communist North and the thriving capitalist South.

The attack seemed to challenge one of the underlying assumptions of a decade of inter-Korean rapprochement, which had slowed but not stopped under President Lee Myung-bak: that two nations’ shared Koreanness trumped political differences, making a return to cold war-era hostilities not only undesirable but also impossible.

“I never thought they would attack us people of the same race,” said Hong Jae-soon, 55, a homemaker who fled Yeonpyeong with most of the island’s other 1,350 residents after the attack.

Here's another from Asiaone News....Mood shifts in S.Korea for tough stance against North 

.... I am praying..... yes indeed....

Hugs

Rita

Thanks everyone.  Seelerboy tells me not to worry, so I try to put it our of my mind as much as possible.  Still I listen to the news and read the paper (and my local paper is not much into international news). 

It's times like this I'm grateful to live in a peaceful and stable country. There's a lot that could be improved but sometimes I forget my good fortune.

I pray for peace in those parts of the globe that are ravaged by warfare - and those countries where an outbreak of war is a constant threat.

And I pray for seeler - who is facing a difficult time with courage.

South Korea alone has the force to withstand an attack. As well, it has 28,000 US troops who have been a garrison in South Korea for amost sixty years. And, of course, massive sea and air power is available.

That will, I know, be small comfort. But it's important to remember that.

adding my prayers for families of seeler & morning calm - and all who are affected, displaced, troubled by this turn of events.  

Seeler, I will hold your son in my thoughts and prayers.  We (The JGER Unit/UCC) have an Overseas Personnel working in Seoul right now, and she tells us that the Canadian Embassy has warned her to stay out of Peace Protests.  We're praying for her too!

Scuttlebut around the office is that the military exercises are doing more to add to the tension than to diffuse it.  To me, it feels like they're trying to show off their flexed muscles as a scare tactic.  I hope that this can be solved peacefully, but I fear that North Korea's dying for a bite of something to successfully translate as a victory for Kim Jong-Il's son.

The US really couldn't call off its joint manoeuvres. The date for them was set some months ago.    They are, at least, in close contact with China - and neither China nor the US is anxious for anything to happen.

Makes you wonder if the timing of this whole unrest was very carefully planned, doesn't it graeme?

Kind of reminds you of the Israelies, or is it the Palestinians, poke, poke, poke until the Israelies, or is it the Palestinians, retaliate.

IT

Russ

Thank you carolla.

Last night on the drive home from work, I said to my wife, "Yobo, I have sad news for you (pause). Tomorrow is November 30th, the last day of "Movember" which means I have to shave my moustache off."

"Don't say sad news." she replied "I very worried about (my son) Won Jae right now. Maybe he will go back in the army. North Korea they say they send another missile to South tomorrow."

The rest of the ride home was pretty silent. I quietly sang "Do they know it's Christmastime at all..." to myself.

your wife adds perspective to your life morningcalm.

Oh, I don't think this one can be pinned on the US. They have every reason to avoid a war in the Koreas. So does China. No. I think this one is purely a North Korean idea.

graeme - that's what I was referring to.  I imagine that North Korea was very aware of when the proposed military exercises were going down, and decided to take advantage of a loaded situation to increase tensions even further.

E-mails from Seelerboy indicate that on campus they are taking the situation seriously but in stride.  In other words, they are carrying on with their classes and their lives.  He knows we are concerned but he wants us to know that he is okay.  Thanks for your concern - I'm a mother.  It's a mother's job to worry over her children, even when they are big boys and girls. 

She sure does.

My wife phoned her brothers in South Korea a couple of nights ago. She said they seem unworried. She said they've been through threats from North Korea so often that it's nothing new.

Thinking of you seeler and morningcalm with your family members in Korea.

May Korea will surive from this.. i shall pray to God..

Thank you Beloved, curl, and all others.