South Korean Presidential Election

The Presidential election for South Korea is scheduled to be held on December 19th, and, as usual, North Korea is demanding attention.

The North has always come across to me as a large--and, now nuclear-armed--baby that is seeking attention.

Their present actions confirm such perceptions, as North Korea is planning on launching a rocket days prior to South Korea's election day.

Predictable.

So the U.S., Japan, and South Korea are coordinating to monitor the launch (presumably a thin veil for testing ballistic missile technology).

All of the involved countries are spending a lot of money that could be put to much better uses, especially in the case of North Korea, where people regularly starve to death.

South Korea is talking with China about possible sanctions against North Korea, but it's unlikely that China would support anything serious, as China doesn't want problems on its border with North Korea.

In a 6th grade class tonight, to practice vocabulary at the end of the class, I had them do a 9 word bingo game.  The subject was "countries".

One student said to the others, "If you write 'Japan' you die."

Already knowing the answer, I still asked, "Why?"

The student said, "Because Japan are our enemies." [sic]

I asked, "What about North Korea?  They kill South Koreans." [North Korea has, in the two years, killed quite a few South Koreans, in the Cheonan warship attack and the border island attack.]

A different student said, "But we are the same people."