Seoul,<\/p>\n
South Koreans are buying more gold and ready to eat meals, while the government plans to expand nation-wide civil defence drills planned for this month as rhetoric between North Korea and the United States ramps up tension.<\/p>\n
Long used to living within the range of North Korea\u2019s artillery, people in the South have generally ignored its aggressiveness and series of nuclear and long-range missile tests.<\/p>\n
But this week, as Pyongyang exchanged increasingly angry words with the United States, there are worries of a clash erupting along the heavily militarised frontier which divides the two Koreas.<\/p>\n
Combat Ration Inc, which makes 2 billion won ($1.75 million) of annual revenue selling ready to eat meals, said sales had surged as much as 50 percent in the past week compared to the average.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince 2006, when North Korea first conducted its nuclear test, there wasn\u2019t this much response as people became immune to frequent missile launches and nuclear tests,\u201d said Yoon Hee-yeul, the chief executive of Combat Ration, based in the southeastern city of Daegu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel it\u2019s different this time,\u201d said Yoon, who\u2019s been in the business since 2004.<\/p>\n
Ready to eat meals maker Babmart, based in eastern Seoul, and another Seoul-based online seller, jun2food.com, also said sales have increased. Officials at both companies attributed the surge to the heightened tension.<\/p>\n
North Korea said on Thursday its army would complete plans in mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land near the US Pacific territory of Guam.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was not going to get away with his \u201chorrific\u201d comments and disrespecting America.<\/p>\n
\u201cKoreans used to be numb to North Korea\u2019s threats, however, it seems different this time, and people are taking it seriously,\u201d said Song Jong-gil, an official of Korea Gold Exchange 3M, where sales of mini gold bars have surged five-fold since Aug. 9.<\/p>\n
After Trump\u2019s \u201cfire and fury\u201d threat heightened tension, average daily sales volume has been 250 bars, ranging in weight between 10 grams (0.35 oz) and 100 grams (3.5 oz), versus about 50 earlier, Song said, adding the trend would continue through August.<\/p>\n
Investors widely consider gold a safe-haven asset at times of growing geopolitical risk or economic uncertainty. South Koreans, who are still technically at war with their combative neighbours, are no exception.<\/p>\n
Experts say if North Korea did launch intermediate-range missiles toward Guam, all its other missiles and artillery would be ready for action. Hundreds of thousands of troops and huge arsenals are arrayed on both sides of the tense demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.<\/p>\n
At least 1,000 of the North\u2019s artillery pieces are capable of reaching densely populated Seoul and its metropolitan area, home to some 25 million people.
\nBigger drills<\/p>\n
Seoul is expanding its participation in a nationwide civil defence drill, set to take place on Aug. 23, Shim Kang-cheon, a local Seoul government official, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
The five-minute drill begins with a siren on radio, and cars are stopped at designated spots. Pedestrians are escorted off the streets and taken to safe spots like subway stations.<\/p>\n
All of Seoul\u2019s 25 districts will participate in the drill this year, Shim said, compared to just five last year.<\/p>\n
In a recent message, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said, \u201cSince North Korea is very close to crossing the red line, Seoul needs to ramp up all defence measures against North Korea\u2019s potential threat,\u201d said another Seoul city official who asked not to be identified by name.<\/p>\n
The drill coincides with the four-day \u201cUlji Freedom Guardian\u201d military manoeuvres on August 21-24, which are held yearly and include joint exercises by the US and South Korean armed forces, as well as drills for emergencies.<\/p>\n
But many officials say there is a long way to go to raise public awareness about civil defence. At two subway stations visited by Reuters on Friday, many people didn\u2019t know the locations were among Seoul\u2019s more than 3,200 designated bomb shelters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seoul, South Koreans are buying more gold and ready to eat meals, while the government plans to expand nation-wide civil defence drills planned for this month as rhetoric between North Korea and the United States ramps up tension. Long used to living within the range of North Korea\u2019s artillery, people in the South have generally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1916,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1914\/revisions\/1916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}