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Tensions are escalating between North and South Korea, now that the South has formally blamed the North for the sinking of a Navy ship in March. But as Jason Strother reports, a lot of South Koreans, especially younger ones, don’t view North Korea as a real threat.

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MARCO WERMAN:  A North Korean general today accused South Korea of faking the sinking of its own warship.  Forty six sailors died when the Cheonan went down in March.  South Korea blames Pyongyang and it has cut trade and launched anti-submarine exercises.  North Korea says the peninsula is edging toward all out war.  Yet despite the heated words, people in South Korea remain fairly calm.  As Jason Strother reports, that may be because many South Koreans don’t view the North as a real threat.

JASON STROTHER: Protestors waiving flags and anti-North Korea banners fill up Seoul Plaza’s grass field.  They’re showing support for South Korea’s President Lee Myung Bak, and they’re calling for tough action against the Kim Jong Il regime for the sinking of the Cheonan.  But it doesn’t take long to notice there’s practically no one in the crowd under the age of 60.  Young South Koreans have been visibly absent from the vocal outcry here.  Some students at Seoul’s Yonsei University say until bombs start falling, they won’t worry about North Korea.  Twenty year old Kim Nayeon says she’s heard it all before.

KIM NAYEON:  I’m not very nervous because around me other people doesn’t have any nervous feeling because there are so many threats from North Korea.

STROTHER: Twenty six year old Lee Seong Bin says even though both sides are stepping up the threats, he’s not ready go get out of town, but some of his friends are.  My Japanese and American friends here are all worried about North Korea he says.  South Koreans are the only ones who aren’t seriously concerned.  Some observers say you had to have lived through the Korean War to understand how dangerous this current stand off could become.  Journalist Shim Jae Hoon was a kid when North Korea invaded in 1950.  He says there’s a serious generation gap when it comes to perceptions of security here.

SHIM JAE HOON:  People in their twenties and thirties in South Korea today are what we call a peace generation.  And prosperity generation.  They’re PP generation to be short.  These are the people who have never known what it was like fighting a war or being poor under military rule.

STROTHER: Shim says when military rule ended two decades ago, extreme anti-Communist education went out with it.  Some analysts say that void was filled by left-leaning Nationalistic teachings that down played North Korea’s hostilities.  Brian Myers is author of “The Cleanest Race, How North Koreans See Themselves, and Why it Matters.

BRIAN MYERS:  Any of the young people who came of age or who went to school anytime between 1998 and early 2008 will have gone through probably have had history lessons that did more to talk about American atrocities during the Korean War than about anything bad that the North Koreans might have done.

STROTHER: And Myers says that might explain why more young people come out to demonstrate against U.S. beef imports than against North Korea’s apparent role in the Cheonan attack.  One recent poll found that about 20% of Koreans don’t believe North Korea was responsible.  Online message boards are filled with conspiracy theories, including one that President Lee is using the incident to grab more power.  Journalist Shim Jae Hoon says he’s worried that many Koreans have a blind spot on North Korea.

HOON:  They have the notion that whenever we criticize the North, they think that this is an extension of a past anti-communist education.  That is why they refuse to see the real picture of North Korea.  They don’t want to believe the government.

STROTHER: But Shim says even though South Koreans don’t view North Korea as an enemy, that may change if the situation continues to deteriorate.  For The World, I’m Jason Strother in Seoul.

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