South Jersey Korean Americans, Korean War veterans, hope Kim Jong II’s death eases tensions

From Press of Atlantic City: South Jersey Korean Americans, Korean War veterans, hope Kim Jong II’s death eases tensions
The New Jersey Korean War Memorial in Atlantic City’s Brighton Park is engraved with the names of more than 800 people from the state who were killed or lost in the conflict more than 50 years ago.

In some ways, the battle continues today. Veterans of that war — as well as Korean Americans living in South Jersey — wondered Monday whether the death of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Il, would eventually ease tensions with South Korea and the rest of the world, or only intensify them.

“Our dream and hope has always been to be united in some way,” said Judy Yoo, who was born in South Korea and is now president of the Greater Southern New Jersey Korean American Association. “I can’t say whether there’s going to be a better chance of that.”

Kim succeeded his father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994, taking the reins of a radical totalitarian dictatorship that has controlled the northern half of the Korean Peninsula since 1948.

Before his death Saturday from an apparent heart attack, Kim named his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to be his successor. But with little known yet about the direction of the isolationist country and its repressive government, locals hoped for the best, but also anticipated the worst.

“I think we have a bigger problem because (Kim’s) son’s unknown,” said Ed Marinelli, of Hammonton, a former mayor and Korean War veteran. “I think it’s going to be a long, tough road ahead.”

Marinelli was serving in the Army in Japan in 1949 after World War II when war broke out between North Korea and South Korea, the two countries a result of the United States and Soviet Union dividing up the formerly Japanese-controlled region.

Although an armistice was signed in 1953 that ended fighting, an alliance between the U.S. and South Korea was also signed that year, and nearly 30,000 American troops continue to serve there in its defense.

Brief attacks over the countries’ border have heightened tensions several times in the past half century. More than a year ago, when North Korea fired artillery shells at a South Korean island, killing four people and injuring nearly 20 others, those tensions reached a height some said had not been seen since the Korean War,

There was widespread international condemnation of the North Korean attack, which the country said was instigated by the South firing shells into the North’s waters, a claim South Korea disputed.

North Korea has also had nuclear weapons since at least 2006, when the country claimed to have successfully tested its first nuclear weapon.

“You never know what’s going to happen there,” said Tom Costa, of Hammonton, who served in the Army in South Korea from 1963 to 1964. “I think it’s worse now because they have nuclear weapons.”

Meanwhile, as South Korea has progressed into a modernized capitalist country since recovering from the destruction of the Korean War, North Korea has a state-controlled economy and is considered among the world’s poorest countries.

“Except for the capital, the rest of the country is starving,” Costa said.

Koreans make up a small percentage of South Jersey’s Asian population today. Of the approximately 30,000 Asian residents living in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Ocean counties, only about 7 percent are of Korean heritage, the U.S. Census Bureau says.

Ron Lee, of Egg Harbor Township, was born in South Korea and moved here in 1975. The owner of Sunshine Cleaners in Northfield, he also said he hopes the transition of North Korea’s leadership can lead to peace.

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen in the next couple of months, but there’s definitely a chance,” he said. “Hopefully, there’s a new change in the system.”

Yoo, who lives in Burlington Township, Burlington County, said she has been amazed at the progress of South Korea since she moved to the U.S. in 1983.

She said she doesn’t expect the death of Kim Jong Il to lead to such dramatic changes in the North, but would welcome it.

“We have to wait and see, but my hope is that it will bring peace,” she said.