The Marmot’s Hole

14 Comments

1. Above Criticism
   Posted January 29, 2008 at 6:34 pm | Permalink

   Not to be a curmudgeon, but isn’t your tone a little inappropriate?

2. Robert Koehler
   Posted January 29, 2008 at 6:48 pm | Permalink

   Agreed.

3. Maethelwine
   Posted January 29, 2008 at 6:53 pm | Permalink

   Yes, I also thought something was afoot with the ankle you chose for this entry. These guys just wanted to go out and have a blast on the beach, and here you are wandering out into a veritable minefield with your appallingly pedestrian take on this story. And don’t try to defend yourself, either. You haven’t a leg to stand on. Maybe next time you’ll think about walking a mile in the other fellow’s shoe before you stick your foot in your mouth like this.

4. Maddlew
   Posted January 29, 2008 at 7:07 pm | Permalink

   Hey, Curmudgeon! How’s this? “Hey, you guys! I think I put my foot on backwards.”
   My apologies to his family and friends.
   On a more appropriate note, perhaps with the pending unification and the need to bolster tourism, somebody with a metal detecter could wander around and find a bit of this lost ordinance. Particularly around the beach areas which would be unspeakably alluring except for the barbed wire, military firing ranges and miscellaneous things that go boom.

5. R. Elgin
   Posted January 29, 2008 at 7:24 pm | Permalink

   I love mines because they are the only thing that keeps people from ruining the nature preserve that the DMZ has turned into after all these years. Pride in one’s country and a desire to preserve one’s natural resources has a price tag here but a mine is a non-negotiable entity.

6. globalvillageidiot
   Posted January 29, 2008 at 7:30 pm | Permalink

   A few unfortunate people in Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces will probably be getting maimed or possibly killed by these things for decades to come. I think it is safe to assume that the mapping/laying of mines is not an exact science, and as the article mentions, flooding plays a role in displacing them to locations they might harm innocent civilians.

7. G.B. Curley
   Posted January 29, 2008 at 9:17 pm | Permalink

   Noted. And to be quite honest, the angle I took was not at all poking fun at the victim. It was rather at the blatant disregard for however the mine got there in the first place. Either way, apologies to those that did found it distasteful. The reality that it could have happened to anyone venturing off in that part of the peninsula is what I find more frightening than anything.

8. SomeguyinKorea
   Posted January 29, 2008 at 10:19 pm | Permalink

   #5,

   Yes, but they probably can’t keep them there forever. They’ll remove them after reunification (if it ever occurs) and destroy the environment in the process.

9. tomcoyner
   Posted January 30, 2008 at 12:04 am | Permalink

   The scary fact is that land mines over time can migrate thanks to flooding and other natural and sometimes man-made changes in a topography.

   Several farmers in northern Gyeonggi-do over the years have suffered — and often these people have been living on marginal incomes, so when they lose a foot they effectively lose their means to make a living.

   It is unusual for this to happen to a tourist, probably from an urban center being injured. In that sense, the incident is more newsworthy, but stepping on a land mine tends to be worse in the long run for a farmer than an urbanite.

10. Mr Kim
    Posted January 30, 2008 at 12:09 am | Permalink

    In September and October 2000, landmines in Hari Ferry and Seokmo Island, Ganghwa County cost two men a foot. [emphasis mine]

    Does this mean they lost a foot each? One of them lost a foot? They were sharing a foot between them, and they lost it? God damn it, 조선일보.

11. Zonath
    Posted January 30, 2008 at 1:03 am | Permalink

    #8

    They’ll all be removed for phase 4 of LMB’s canal plan, coming soon in 2012.

12. SomeguyinKorea
    Posted January 30, 2008 at 1:08 am | Permalink

    Interesting read.

    http://www.icbl.org/lm/2000/south_korea

    http://www.icbl.org/lm/2007/south_korea

13. madne0
    Posted January 30, 2008 at 3:07 am | Permalink

    #3

    That was awesome.

14. R. Elgin
    Posted January 30, 2008 at 6:59 am | Permalink

    I wonder if I could plant mines in my neighborhood, here in Seoul. It might be the only way to keep the sneaky people from posting banners, stickers and all kinds of junk, all over the place. My local Gu office filed a suit against Korea Telecom for their illegal banners but that will bog down in the over-loaded legal system and, if KT loses, they would never pay enough of a fine to matter.

    Perhaps the land mine is the new Korean tiger that everyone would fear.