Citizens show calm reaction

An official from the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) checks for possible radiation contamination in Gangneung, an eastern South Korean city in Gangwon Province near the border with North Korea, Tuesday, at a KINS monitoring station in the city, following the North’s third nuclear test. / Yonhap

By Kim Jae-won

People criticized North Korea’s third nuclear test Tuesday and urged it to desist from threatening the international community with its nuclear weapons program.

The defense ministry said the government detected a 4.9-magnitude seismic event in the northeastern part of North Korea, which it believes was the aftershock from country’s third nuclear test. North Korea also confirmed that it completed the test successfully, following its previous ones in 2006 and 2009.

“North Korea continues its old habit of pressing neighboring countries with nuclear weapons. I am sick of its behavior,” said Kim Ki-yeop, the branch manager of a local bank in southern Seoul.

Kim wants the incoming Park Geun-hye government to toughen its stance against the North because the conciliatory gestures of the late President Kim Dae-jung only served to embolden the regime in Pyongyang.

However, some downplayed the threat posed by the latest test. Those holding this view generally do not believe that their personal security is being undermined in any way by the bomb because it is just North Korea flexing its muscles on the international stage.

“I don’t think that North Korea’s nuclear test poses a big threat to us because it is merely an attention seeking measure. I don’t believe that the country will provoke military actions with it,” said Koo Bon-keun, 34, the chief editor at Human & Books, a local publisher.

Lim Soo-hyang, 32, a housewife in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, echoed Koo’s opinion, saying the test was not a big concern for her.

“The media says that it is dangerous, but I hardly could feel it. I’ve never seen North Korea as a real threat to me,” said Lim, who lives some 50 kilometers south of the border with North Korea.

A senior level banker of a state-run lender said that the nuclear test was more of a global issue, not a domestic matter, because the country aims to hit anywhere in the world with its nuclear weapons.

“I don’t think North Korea is targeting us with the nuclear weapons. What it wants is to show that it is able to attack the U.S. with its nuclear weapons using its missiles, making it a global problem,” said the banker in his late 40s, who declined to be identified further.

Pyongyang succeeded in launching a long-range rocket in December, putting its Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite into orbit. Experts say with the successful launch, the country showed that it has come one step further in its quest to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles with the potential to hit targets in the U.S.

The banker said the test will motivate international cooperation among neighboring countries, such as South Korea, China, the U.S. and Japan in order to push through further sanctions against the North.

He also worried that the test will increase the risk for South Korea on international financial markets, which had been reduced over the last few years. However, the local stock market remained undisturbed by the issue. The main bourse closed at 1,945.79 points, Tuesday, down 5.11 points, or 0.26 percent from the previous business day.