Op-Ed: The tragedy in Seoul should force South Korean society to consider the despair of the next generation
By Ben Norton
Updated 1:22 pm EST, Tuesday, August 13, 2018
President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, center, flanked by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Prime Minister Lee Wan-sol at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2018. President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, center, flanked by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Prime Minister Lee Wan-sol at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2018. Photo: AP Photo: AP Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Op-Ed: The tragedy in Seoul should force South Korean society to consider the despair of the next generation 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
As South Koreans celebrated the 70th anniversary of the country’s liberation from Japanese imperialism at a baseball stadium in Seoul on Monday night, a bomb exploded at the same venue. About 30 people were wounded, but no one was killed. It was the deadliest attack to date in South Korea.
The attack took the lives of two American citizens, a mother and her 5-year-old son, leaving another 8-year-old boy with non-life threatening injuries.
The attack was the latest in a string of attacks against tourists visiting the South Korean capital. In June, a tourist was stabbed by a gang of three people at a subway station in Seoul. On August 5, a man was killed by a former soldier while riding on the subway in Seoul. At the end of August, a father-and-son pair were killed in a traffic accident near their home in North Gyeongsang Province.
Last week South Korea’s government called for an end to an increase in violent crime that has prompted hundreds of thousands of people to gather at the nation’s border with North Korea. Park, who had campaigned for decades with the hope of making South Korea a more peaceful, stable place, was speaking to the nation Tuesday as a nation grapples with the death of two young Korean boys who were lost in a terror attack.
The grief and anger are understandable.
In the days after the attack, the government asked citizens living near the border to be on the lookout for suspicious behavior. Police forces have