Help For Yeonpyeong's Other Victims

It was touching  to receive a comment from a kind-hearted reader who offered to adopt one of the dogs featured on my posting - Yeonpyeong's Other Victims. It's good to know that something's being done for the 200 to 300 stray animals and abandoned pets on Yeonpyeong-do. Three cheers for these animal rights activists, vets and members of the Korean Society for Animal Freedom who provided some relief  for the distressed creatures left behind on the island and who were able to bring back to the mainland some of those which needed medical attention.

It was also interesting to hear on KBS World Radio that improvements were needed for an animal management system to deal with such emergencies in the future. Who was it who said that the measure of a truly civil society is how well or badly it takes care of the weak and vulnerable? Unfortunately in my own country, we're not so advanced so this is a good reminder of how far we have to go.

Animal rights activist Park So-youn holds stray dogs rescued from a village damaged by North Korean artillery shelling, upon her leaving a ferry from Yeonpyeong Island, November 29, 2010.

REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak

A police officer carries a wounded dog to a ferry after animal rights activists rescued it from a village damaged by North Korean artillery shelling, at a port on Yeonpyeong Island, November 29, 2010.

A South Korean animal rights activist carries dogs to a ferry at the port of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island Monday, Nov. 29, 2010 after searching the island to look for abandoned or injured animals to evacuate them. On the ship are journalists also leaving the island to return to the South Korean mainland
(AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)






sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLlxf22v6V8

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9660474

Jjimjilbang - A Refuge For Evacuees

Somebody, please confirm this for me - is it standard practice for Koreans who have been evacuated from their homes for whatever reason to be sheltered for the time being in jjimjilbangs? Or is this an exceptional instance in which a patriotic and sympathetic public sauna owner voluntarily offers his place of business to provide a temporary refuge for his fellow citizens?

I had assumed that the inhabitants of Yeonpyeong would have been put up in some civic building like a covered stadium or a school if it was closed for the term break if they couldn't stay with relatives on the mainland. So it was a little surprising to see this photo in the JoongAng Daily.

But at the same time, it isn't so surprising -as the jjimjilbang is an ideal place to house a large number of people with its ample facilities for bathing, sleeping, eating and keeping in touch with the latest news on TV in the communal spaces. Still, one wonders how long this situation can last especially as there have been news of jittery islanders being evacuated from other islands near Yeonpyeong like Baengnyeong, Daecheong and Socheong.

Caption from Joong Ang Daily: Evacuated Yeonpyeong Island residents take up temporary shelter at a jjimjilbang (a Korean public bathhouse) in Incheon yesterday. [NEWSIS]

source:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2928930

Yeonpyeong's Other Victims

They don't look like the same dog but I was particularly struck by these two pics from Yeonpyeong. These bewildered victims of the North Korean artillery attack on the island must've been particularly shell-shocked and I really hope some kind soul will take them off the island soon as it looks as if Yeonpyeong may be a ghost town for some time.  Even if they're not stray dogs to begin with, there's slim chance of them being reunited with their owners as most of the inhabitants have been evacuated already and putting up temporarily in jjimjilbangs in Incheon.

Caption from Korea Times:  Abandoned dog: A dog sits in front of destroyed buildings on Yeonpyeong Island near the West Sea border, Friday. The island was attacked by North Korean artillery fire, which claimed the lives of two marines and two civilians. / Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han

Caption from Yonhap News: Nov. 27, YEONPYEONG, South Korea -- A dog wounded by a North Korean shell that hit the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong earlier this week eats part of a combat ration from a South Korean man on Nov. 27. Most of the residents on the island have evacuated since the artillery attack on Nov. 23. (Yonhap)
sources:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/11/115_77047.html
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/

Black Tuesday

23 November 2010 was a black day for Yeonpyeong Island and South Korea

Red circle round the artillery positions in bunkers in caves on the North Korean side

What to make of this attack? Kim Jong-un practising brinksmanship under Daddy's tutelage?

From Mark Mardell's blog:

" One astute observer, Fred Kaplan, wrote five years ago: In the game of highway chicken, North Korea is the shrewd lunatic who very visibly throws his steering wheel out the window, forcing the other, more responsible driver to veer off the road.What has changed since then is that the new boy on the road may be even more reckless than his dad and perhaps not as shrewd. As so often these days all eyes are on China. As so often there is an equal danger of exaggerating China's power as underestimating it. There is no sign as yet that North Korea is paying any attention to its only ally. Let's hope it does. It is perhaps the only hope of avoiding a terrible collision in this dangerous game of dare."

From one news source:

According to 2009 government statistics, 1,780 residents live on Yeonpyeong Island in 932 households.

Kim Hye-yeong, a 51-year-old woman who runs a crab seafood restaurant on the island, said she was on a dock to pick up boxes of seafood around 2:30 p.m. when she heard the artillery explosions. “There was an ear-splitting noise whenever the artillery landed,” Kim said. “My town is about 10 minutes away by car from where I work and I felt I must get back there to see my mother and husband. I drove to town but I had to stop, get out of the car and back onto the ground for a moment because artillery fire kept exploding on the island.So I left my car and walked to my village ... I went home and all the windows of my house were shattered and the roof had collapsed. A piece of artillery even landed on my house.”

 There are 19 shelters on the island. But underground bunkers are short on food and electricity.

Grim-faced Seoulites glued to the news at the train station - can they find consolation in the idea that there's strength in restraint, particularly after the Cheonan Incident?

The first night of mourning and candlelight vigils

sources:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/11/117_76863.html

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/11/120_76860.html
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/11/205_76858.html
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/11/115_76867.html
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/11/205_76858.html
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2928798
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/11/24/2010112400306.html
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/11/24/2010112401039.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell/2010/11/a_deadly_game_of_korean_chicke.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/23/korea-attack-yeonpyeong-island_n_787294.html#s189515
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Analysts-North-Korea-Shelling-Nuclear-Revelations-Linked-to-Succession-Talks-110219459.html