Byline: Michael Dorgan
SEOUL, South Korea _ Sipping a latte in Seoul's trendy downtown Myeong-dong district, 20-year-old Park Jin-woo pondered a paradox that has huge implications for South Korea, the United States and all of northeast Asia.
It's this: As South Korea's younger generation has grown more Western in recent years in its tastes and lifestyle, it has become increasingly anti-American.
The North Korean nuclear standoff has revealed deep strains within the once rock-solid U.S.-South Korean relationship. Underlying those strains is a generation gap in South Korea that pits a generally pro-American older generation against a younger generation increasingly suspicious of the United States and less worried by North Korea.
"Older people do not understand our clothing and our hair styles," said Park, gesturing toward his own fashionably shaggy henna-dyed locks. "And older people, including my parents, do not believe that North Korea has changed its attitude. But younger people believe that North Korea will gradually _ not suddenly, but gradually _ change."
Seoul's Myeong-dong district, where 20-year-old Park was having coffee at Starbucks, is full of American fast food...
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-8166323_ITM
Well, I noticed that a bit when I lived in Korea 10 years ago. The older generation saw NK as a grave threat while the younger generation simply see NK as a weakened, famine ravished country.
The younger generation doesn’t understand that the famine of 1996-1997 was largely artificial (i.e. NK gov’t provoked) and that even though the regular people were starving, the army was fell fed and well trained and just as much a threat in 1997 as they were in 1957.
They see strength as a threat so that’s why they believe the US is more of a threat to peace than NK. In a way, it’s a compliment.
OTOH, I wouldn’t take too much stock in what the MSM have to say about SK either, afterall, they just elected a conservative as President, and plenty of younger folks voted for him.