North Korea and Gas Masks in Pop MVs

In light of North Korea’s third nuclear test, I've decided to pull up a forum post I wrote a few months ago. Keep in mind, this was posted to the Off Topic forum of a video game website… J

In 2010 I reenlisted in the US Army and requested assignment in S. Korea and in June began my 1 year in the country. From what I can recall geographically speaking, I was something like 12 miles away from the Joint Security Area (as in, the DMZ). Every week, almost, they'd try to drill into us the idea that if North Korea really and truly felt like attacking South Korea, our life expectancy was less than 15 seconds.

So I thought, hey, while I'm 12 miles away from North Korea, why not go have a look? Lo and behold, there's the JSA, where foreign dignitaries sit in a relatively small conference room that sits quite literally on the border between North and South Koreas. There are tours quite frequently (M-F if I am not mistaken, unless there are important people visiting) and everyone is allowed to go with the exception of Korean nationals.

Wait, what? Korean nationals aren't allowed to tour the Joint Security Area?

Nope. And the reason is this: They let you into legal North Korea. I say legal North Korea because they let you into the conference room and walk on the side that happens to be on the North Korean side of the border. And South Koreans are not legally allowed into North Korea.

So I went three or four times and got several pictures and video. The first time we weren't supposed to record the North Korean security but the third time they said "Why not? They record us all the time." Anyway, here are a couple photos. One is the conference table (taken from the North Korean side of the building) and the other is a photo of the North Korean security on duty, watching us through his binos. Good times.

And it's not always a cut and dry argument, uniting the two Koreas. Who knows what North Korea really wants? Despite all the claims, Western media has as much knowledge about the true desires of its leader as I have about molecular biology (which is none, by the way).

Many of the elders (seniors, to use the American term) talk about broken families the same way one might read in old American Civil War journals or interviews. My friend's father fought alongside US Marines and gave me his dress socks and ROK Army belt buckle while I visited their home.

However, the younger generation sees a big problem with reuniting with the North. Economically, N. Korea is very poor and combining the two nations without some kind of stopgap in place to hold the strength of the S. Korean won would damage the S. Korean economy worse than our American recession a couple of years ago or even the recent troubles in Greece.

But N. Korea still has an impact on life in S. Korea. You see it in the subways where there are gas mask vending machines, of sorts. In the case of an attack, I assume you are supposed to break into it and put on a gas mask. I have no idea how many masks are contained in the machine but when there are hundreds upon thousands of people running about in the miles of underground platforms and ships with a fraction of the necessary masks, very few would survive.

This sort of constant looming "threat" makes its way into pop culture now and then. During my stay, a recently debuted pop group by the name of miss A released a song called Breathe. The song itself is a fun little pop song about a boy and a girl while the MV (which I will link below) has an assortment of oddities (from the 2000's style Target commercial including bulls eye, to a Zebra wth?) but around the 30 second mark each member briefly puts on a gas mask. There are other examples in more recent Korean pop music videos but this was the first that personally caught my attention.  Probably because of the colors.  Or maybe just the girls?:

Most of us have no idea what it's like to grow up with the constant reminder that 90% of the population of your country could just disappear overnight. But now with the new President, South Korea's first female in the position, questions are raised. She supports reuniting the two Koreas but at what cost? I support it, too but at this point in reality there's no way S. Korea can do it alone. It would have to be a #wholeworldproblem in order to reintegrate N. Korean citizens into a society where you still have propaganda 24/7 but you can choose to believe it or disbelieve it. How many outbreaks of violence would occur from the brainwashed and how many would die to defend their dear leader's honor by fighting against the "oppressive nation of S. Korea"?

As I said, the world would pretty much have to come together in uniting these two nations or the whole world would suffer the consequence, in my opinion. And that consequence is more money in humanitarian and reconciliation, rehabilitation and reintegration and far less to be spent on regular education, infrastructure and what have you.

Then the racial identity of these citizens! Can you imagine how much bitterness and hate there would be between the two? I'm fairly certain it would still take decades and generations for any kind of meaningful integration.

At this point it's a catch-22. Think of the Hong Kong economy while under British rule. This is the most effective way to reunite the two Koreas, that we've put into actual practice. If it's going to happen, let N. Korea be governed by a neutral party for 100 years or so with mandates stating certain objectives must be complete that would bring it into alignment with the rest of the world economically speaking. Once all the objectives are complete, begin slow reintegration.

Other Kpop MVs that feature gas masks:

M.I.B ~ Celebrate

EXID ~ Every Night

NELL ~ White Night