Well, as many of you already know, South and North Korea are not best friends. The north lives in a complete shut off state, only some foreingers get in, no korean gets out or in. In aspects of economy, language and culture they also split into different directions.
As for foreign affairs both countries have a very different approach. And as it seems now North Korea has taken drastic movements, in terms of threats and politics. They shut down the plant, which is a project of the north and the south. They are threatening the U.S. and an island east of North Korea, belonging to the south. They are positioning the army at the border and so on.
How did it get that far? The initial event was a nuke test by the north. The nuke had half of the strength what the nukes had, which were dropped over Japan in WW2. International politics reacted with a embargo, and now North Korea is low on supplies. As a reaction to that, the current situation developed and somewhat escalated.
But here in South Korea the people are not that in panic. You don't see army forces in the cities, no males were called into the army and no official alarm was issued by any embassy. All officials tell us, to keep calm, because that is not the first time, this happened. Somewhere I read that since North Korea exsits 430.000 threats were issued against the south and only a few real escalations with actual acts of war happened.
One of the worst was a incident, were the north attacked an island and serveral people died. During that time most of the koreans in the south were pretty frightened.
As for now, it seems that, if the north does nothing too stupid and the rest of the world keeps its cool, the whole "crisis" will get over with in a few weeks. Don't believe everything you read and don't let media manipulate you: Bad news is good news.

I updated my photos on Flikr. Be sure to check them out. Motor show in Seoul :-D

So long from Korea.