POHANG, South Korea (AP) — The Associated Press spoke with dozens of South Koreans for a detailed look at the nation's stark division in views about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's aggressive pursuit of nuclear-tipped missiles targeting the South and its major ally and protector, the United States.
How South Korea sees its northern rival is a famously complicated subject, split along deep societal fault lines: age, wealth, politics, status, history, sex.
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Cars drive along quiet roads at dawn in Seoul with Bukhan Mountain in the distance, Friday, May 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Commuters watch a news channel at Seoul Station in Seoul, Tuesday, May 28, 2024, showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after a rocket launched by North Korea to deploy a spy satellite exploded shortly after launch the previous day. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
People form lines in front of food trucks at Yeouido Hangang Park, a popular destination for both residents and tourists, as dusk falls in Seoul, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A statue of Lee Seung-bok, a 9-year-old boy who was killed in 1968 by North Korean infiltrators, is accompanied by an inscription that reads, "I hate communists," at the Lee Seung-bok Memorial Hall in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A tour guide holds a map while explaining the Korean War to tourists on a bus heading to Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A mannequin wearing a gas mask stands next to a board explaining how to put it on at the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul, Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A worker places small South Korean flags at the graves of Korean soldiers who died in the Korean War ahead of Memorial Day at Seoul National Cemetery in Seoul, Thursday, May 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Shin Nari, a 34-year-old graduate student who says she is worried about nuclear war, stands for a portrait in an underground parking lot that also serves as a bomb shelter in Seoul, Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Rev. Chung Joon-hee, a pastor at Youngnak Presbyterian Church, stands for a portrait in Seoul, Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Standing behind a drill instructor, recruits wave to their family members during an induction ceremony at a Marine Corps base in Pohang, South Korea, Monday, May 27, 2024. In South Korea, military service is mandatory for most men. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Tourists use binoculars to view North Korea from the Dora Observation Post in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Paju, South Korea, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A directional sign showing the distance to North Korea's Kaesong and Seoul stands in front of fences adorned with ribbons bearing messages wishing for the reunification of the two Koreas at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The result is that some see little danger in North Korea's threatening rhetoric, weapons tests and aggressive military maneuvers — and some are stocking bunkers with goods meant to get them through a nuclear strike.
Here are some key takeaways from the AP examination of South Korea's unique, fragmented perception of its biggest enemy and closest neighbor, North Korea.
The exact details of the North's secretive nuclear program are difficult for outsiders to determine.
But a consensus has formed that the country, one of the world's poorest, is making steady — occasionally dramatic — progress in its drive for an arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles. That progress was underlined Thursday when North Korea test-fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles just days after leader Kim Jong Un vowed to make his nuclear force fully ready for battle.
The end of the three-year Korean War in 1953 resulted in an uneasy cease-fire, which means that the Korean Peninsula, separated by the world’s most heavily armed border, is technically still at war. Those tensions are palpable in South Korea, where every able-bodied man must serve in the military.
North Korea has been working on its nuclear program for decades, but it started in earnest in the 1990s. Its regular missile and nuclear tests are meant to build an arsenal that can accurately hit targets on the American mainland. There are still technical issues Pyongyang must master, but the development of such weapons may only be a matter of time.
Experts estimate that Pyongyang has as many as 60 warheads.
“Kim Jong Un might really use a nuke,” Kim Jaehyun, a 22-year-old undergraduate law student, told AP. “North Korea could really attack us out of the blue.”
Kim Jaehyun stockpiles a bulletproof vest and other military gear in the event of a war. He also regularly attends North Korea security seminars and reads articles on war scenarios.
“There needs to be at least one person like me who can raise how dangerous” North Korea is, Kim said. “People just take the looming threats too lightly. It’s like they see the knife coming closer to them but never think the knife could stab them.”
Anxiety in South Korea is partly linked to former U.S. President Donald Trump, who repeatedly questioned the decades-long Seoul-Washington alliance. This, along with the North’s rapid nuclear progress, has raised serious questions in Seoul about whether Washington would fulfill its oft-stated pledge to respond with its own nuclear weapons if the North attacked South Korea.
Shin Nari can quickly quantify her worry about nuclear war.
“Number-wise, from 1 to 10, I would say 8. … I take it very seriously,” said Shin, 34, a master’s student at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. She says a war could happen anytime. “In a few seconds, we could just blow up here.”
On the outskirts of Seoul, Jung Myungja, 73, was so worried about a nuclear attack that she commissioned the building of a bunker, about the size of a medium-sized walk-in closet, below the courtyard of her house.
“You never know what the future holds,” Jung said. “These days you get local news and (expert) opinions that say there is likely to be another war in this country. I personally think that can really happen again.”
Two longtime North Korea experts — Robert Carlin and Siegfried Hecker, both of whom have regularly visited the North — argued at the beginning of 2024 that Kim Jong Un had “made a strategic decision to go to war,” creating a situation on the Korean Peninsula that’s “more dangerous than it has been at any time since early June 1950.”
“If a fish lives in water, it doesn’t think about the water.”
That's how the Rev. Chung Joon-hee, a pastor at Youngnak Presbyterian Church in Seoul, one of South Korea’s biggest and most influential churches, explains why many South Koreans ignore the constant North Korean threat.
“This is our world,” he said. “There is nowhere to hide or go. … If there is a provocation or anything that happens, we have to accept that as context in our life.”
Many of the people in South Korea who don’t worry tend to have an abiding faith in Washington’s rhetoric about its “ironclad alliance” with Seoul — and the nearly 30,000 American troops stationed in the South as a deterrent.
Many in South Korea, regardless of age or economic background, also discount the nuclear threat as hollow because of a simple truth: Aside from occasional deadly skirmishes, the North hasn’t backed up its regular threats to use its weapons in a full-scale attack on the South.
“I hope he won’t get injured,” said Yeon Soo Lee, 55, a business owner from Gangneung, said of his son who is becoming a third-generation marine. “But I have no concern that he will be involved in a possible war that North Korea has been implying will happen these days.”
Kwon Young-il, a 28-year-old car salesperson who completed his active military duty in 2021 and is now in the reserves, says almost all the experienced soldiers he knows don’t think war is coming. That includes him.
What does he worry about? “Whether I should get a lunch box provided by the army or buy my own lunch at the post exchange,” he said of his reserve training. “None of my friends seriously think I will have to fight against North Korea.”
The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Cars drive along quiet roads at dawn in Seoul with Bukhan Mountain in the distance, Friday, May 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Commuters watch a news channel at Seoul Station in Seoul, Tuesday, May 28, 2024, showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after a rocket launched by North Korea to deploy a spy satellite exploded shortly after launch the previous day. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
People form lines in front of food trucks at Yeouido Hangang Park, a popular destination for both residents and tourists, as dusk falls in Seoul, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A statue of Lee Seung-bok, a 9-year-old boy who was killed in 1968 by North Korean infiltrators, is accompanied by an inscription that reads, "I hate communists," at the Lee Seung-bok Memorial Hall in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A tour guide holds a map while explaining the Korean War to tourists on a bus heading to Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A mannequin wearing a gas mask stands next to a board explaining how to put it on at the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul, Wednesday, May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A worker places small South Korean flags at the graves of Korean soldiers who died in the Korean War ahead of Memorial Day at Seoul National Cemetery in Seoul, Thursday, May 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Shin Nari, a 34-year-old graduate student who says she is worried about nuclear war, stands for a portrait in an underground parking lot that also serves as a bomb shelter in Seoul, Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Rev. Chung Joon-hee, a pastor at Youngnak Presbyterian Church, stands for a portrait in Seoul, Sunday, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Standing behind a drill instructor, recruits wave to their family members during an induction ceremony at a Marine Corps base in Pohang, South Korea, Monday, May 27, 2024. In South Korea, military service is mandatory for most men. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Tourists use binoculars to view North Korea from the Dora Observation Post in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Paju, South Korea, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A directional sign showing the distance to North Korea's Kaesong and Seoul stands in front of fences adorned with ribbons bearing messages wishing for the reunification of the two Koreas at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Saturday, May 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germans on Saturday mourned both the victims and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people, including a small child, and wounding at least 200 others.
Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the site of the attack in Magdeburg on Friday evening and took him into custody for questioning. He has lived in Germany since 2006, practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg. officials said.
The state governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters that the death toll rose to five from a previous figure of two and that more than 200 people in total were injured.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that nearly 40 of them "are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”
Several German media outlets identified the suspect as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.
Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day. Several people stopped and cried. A Berlin church choir whose members witnessed a previous Christmas market attack in 2016 sang Amazing Grace, a hymn about God's mercy, offering their prayers and solidarity with the victims.
There were still no answers Saturday as to what motivated the man to drive his black BMW into a crowd in the eastern German city.
Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.
He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the “Islamism of Europe.” Some described him as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Haseloff said Friday that authorities believed the man acted alone.
The violence shocked Germany and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition. It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin kept its markets open but has increased its police presence at them.
Germany has suffered a string of extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and wounded eight at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August.
Magdeburg is a city of about 240,000 people, west of Berlin, that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.
Chancellor Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser traveled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to take place in the city cathedral in the evening. Faeser ordered flags lowered to half-staff at federal buildings across the country.
Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers swarmed around the suspect and took him into custody.
Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam whose salon is located in a mall across from the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard loud bangs and thought at first they were fireworks. She then saw a car drive through the market at high speed. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by the car.
Shaking as she described the horror of what she witnessed, she recalled seeing the car bursting out of the market and turning right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee street and then coming to a standstill at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested.
The number of injured people was overwhelming.
“My husband and I helped them for two hours. He ran back home and grabbed as many blankets as he could find because they didn’t have enough to cover the injured people. And it was so cold," she said.
The market itself was still cordoned off Saturday with red-and-white tape and police vans every 50 meters (yards). Police with machine pistols guarded every entry to the market. Some thermal security blankets still lay on the street.
Christmas markets are a German holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages, now successfully exported to much of the Western world.
Aboubakr reported from Cairo and Gera from Warsaw, Poland. Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.
A blanket lies on a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Policemen guard a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Policemen guard a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, centre, speaks at a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Citizens pay tribute to deaths outside St. John's Church near a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noorozi)
Citizens pay tribute and cry for deaths outside St. John's Church near a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noorozi)
A policeman, right, stands on a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Citizens pay tribute to deaths outside St. John's Church near a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noorozi)
Two firefighters walk through a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A damaged car sits with its doors open after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Police stand at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, after a driver plowed into a group of people at the market late Friday. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Police stand at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, after a driver plowed into a group of people at the market late Friday. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
A damaged car sits with its doors open after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Police officers and police emergency vehicles are seen at the Christmas market in Magdeburg after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Matthias Bein/dpa via AP)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A barrier tape and police vehicles are seen in front of the entrance to the Christmas market in Magdeburg after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Sebastian Kahnert/dpa via AP)
The car that was crashed into a crowd of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market is seen following the attack in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
People mourn in front of St. John's Church for the victims of Friday's attack at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Matthias Bein/dpa via AP)
Police tape cordons-off a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A police officer stands guard at at a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Police officers patrol a cordoned-off area at a Christmas Market, where a car drove into a crowd on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Reiner Haseloff, Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt, center, is flanked by Tamara Zieschang, Minister of the Interior and Sport of Saxony-Anhalt, left, and Simone Borris, Mayor of the City of Magdeburg, at a press conference after a car plowed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A police officer guards at a blocked road near a Christmas Market, after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Dörthe Hein/dpa via AP)
Emergency services attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
Emergency services attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A police officer guards at a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
In this screen grab image from video, special police forces attend an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Thomas Schulz/dpa via AP)
Reiner Haseloff (M, CDU), Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt, makes a statement after an incident at the Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A police officer speaks with a man at a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A policeman is seen at the Christmas market where an incident happened in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A firefighter walks through a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after a car drove into a crowd in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Emergency services work in a cordoned-off area near a Christmas Market, after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A view of the cordoned-off Christmas market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday Dec. 20, 2024. (Heiko Rebsch/dpa via AP)
A police officer guards at a blocked road near a Christmas market after an incident in Magdeburg, Germany, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
The car that was crashed into a crowd of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market is seen following the attack in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Security guards stand in front of a cordoned-off Christmas Market after a car crashed into a crowd of people, in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
The car that was crashed into a crowd of people at the Magdeburg Christmas market is seen following the attack in Magdeburg, Germany, Saturday early morning, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Forensics work on a damaged car sitting with its doors open after a driver plowed into a busy Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, early Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidt/dpa via AP)
