the ballet continues, the north giveth by agreeing to talks with the south, then giveth more by expressing regret for the deaths of southerners caused by flood control failure by the north, then taketh away by accusing s.korea of violating n.korea's offshore sovereignty.. it continues, 50 years of it now, a ballet that requires the occasional shedding of blood.

blood rituals: that's what it seems the now-and-again shooting is about. i was in s.korea in '99 and '02 and the naval gun battles were no big deal. everyone seemed to know that n.korea has to provoke such events once in awhile, the pipsqueak in a region of giants and emerging giants has to throw a few punches in order not to be seen as a pushover...

no, i don't really have a point here, just thinking in type, pondering the mystery that is the borg-like understanding that seems to permeate the peninsula, that requires the odd punch-up in order to demonstrate nationhood. i mean, during the cold war the soviets sent over bombers to test norad and we sent out fighters to let them know we knew they were coming but that dance had different rules.

and therein lies the difference? the cold war jousting had to be blood-free, an incident might unleash the end of the world, or at least a bay-of-pigs type tension... no one knew what might result if the dance turned bloody. the koreans, with their nearly cellular level of understanding of each other, need not fear a bit of blood-letting, they understand exactly what is going on and don't need to fear larger ramifications...

as i wrote earlier, i'm just thinking in type here, no hard and fast conclusions to be had, maybe i'm over-stating the "universal knowledge" aspect of the korean character...