Is NK fear leading to panic shopping?

By Kim Tong-hyung

Staff reporter

For most South Koreans, the rogue North Korean regime was perhaps too important to be taken seriously, as contradictory as that sounds. However, conclusive evidence of the North's attack on the warship Cheonan, which led to the deaths of 46 South Korean sailors in March, appears to have been shocking enough to strike fear in their minds again, at least to an extent.

Since last week, when the South Korean government and international investigators officially accused North Korea of sinking the Cheonan, the sales of rice, canned food, "ramen," bottled water and other everyday bunker items have been rising sharply at the country's major retailers.

E-Mart said its sales of rice rose nearly 13 percent during a five-day span since last Thursday, when the results of the investigation were announced, compared to a week earlier.

The country's largest discount chain said its sales of bottled water and ramen rose about 16 percent and 14 percent, respectively, over the same period, while the sales of canned foods were up by more than 13 percent.

Lotte Mart saw its sales of rice increase by 22 percent during the same period, while ramen went up by 14 percent, canned food by 9 percent and bottled water by 6 percent.

The surge in sales of these products serve as a reminder of the more tension-filled days during the Kim Young-sam government, when a North Korean verbal threat to turn the South into a "sea of fire" had an alarmed public quickly exhausting the country's ramen inventory.

South Koreans have clearly grown numb to the North's tactics since then, as evidenced by the paucity of public suspense over the North Korean nuclear program.

The immunization had much do with a sense of weariness over the North's revolving cat-and-mouse game against the rest of the world, as well as the increased level of political engagement and economic cooperation between the two Koreas in the previous Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyung governments.

However, to South Koreans, the sinking of the Cheonan, which would be North Korea's most serious provocation since the 1987 bombing of a Korean Air flight that killed all 115 on board, is a chilling reminder of the North's ability to inflict serious damage upon the country.

And with the Seoul government declaring to suspend all commercial ties with the North, inter-Korean relations have dipped to the lowest point since the turn of the century.

So perhaps the renewed fear of the South Korean public is being manifested through the bustling grocery shelves, or is it?

One E-Mart official believes that the increased sales of rice, ramen and water may have more to do with the three-day weekend that surrounded Buddha's Birthday last week than any North Korea-related tension.

"You don't see people making a massive rush down the aisles like back in the 1990s," he said.

"The long-weekend, which had many families headed outdoors, explains the increased sales of rice, ramen and canned food. And bottled water sales usually pick up when the weather gets warmer."

북한 공포, 라면 사재기로 이어져?

모순되게 들릴지 몰라도 대다수의 국민들은 아마 북한이 너무 중대해 심각하게 받아들여지지 않았던 것 같다. 그러나 지난 3월 수병 46명의 목숨을 앗아간 천안함을 북한이 공격했다는 결정적인 증거가 나오면서 국민은 최소한 어느 정도 공포감이 들 정도로 충격을 받은 것으로 보인다.

정부와 국제합동조사단이 공식적으로 북한의 천안함 침몰에 대해 규탄하고 난 지난 주 이후 주요 마트에서는 쌀과 통조림, 라면, 물, 그리고 그 밖의 벙커에서 쓰는 용품의 판매가 크게 늘었다.

이마트는 천안함 조사결과가 발표된 지난 목요일 이후 5일 동안 쌀의 판매가 이전 주 대비 약 13퍼센트 늘었다고 밝혔다.

이마트는 또한 지난 6일 동안에 물과 라면 판매가 각각 16퍼센트, 14퍼센트 증가했고 통조림은 13퍼센트 넘게 올랐다고 덧붙였다.