“Hey Jake, Guess What?”

That’s what my co-worker said to me yesterday afternoon just after lunch. She followed that up with “Kim Jong Il has died!” She said it so cheerfully that my initial reaction was, “Oh okay.” Followed quickly by, “Wait, what?” I immediately went to my computer, Lincoln, to scrounge up all the breaking details. Naturally, my computer froze.

Lincoln also sucks at rendering the bird.

The reaction here in South Korea has been muted. My vice principal turned on the radio in our office for awhile after lunch yesterday, but other than that nobody’s been talking about it. My Korean tutor, whom I met with yesterday, told me it was the same at her school.

Kim Jong Il was a man who stood at the head of a regime responsible for the deaths of a great many South Koreans over the years, most recently on Yeonpyeong Island last November. Contrast this with the collective national joygasm that happened in America when Osama Bin Laden was killed, and you may start to wonder what the South Koreans know that we don’t.

And it was so.

Maybe its that South Korea has seen this before. When Kim Il Sung died in 1994, his now infamous son took over to rule in his place. It took three years for Kim Jong Il to fully consolidate his power, but even through poverty and famine the government kept its course. I haven’t heard my co-workers or friends utter much about reunification in the last 28 or so hours since Kim’s death was announced. They’ve been through this before, and they know how it ends. We can always hope that this time will be different. This news is still fresh, but South Korea seems to be going about business as usual for now.

I seem to be more interested in talking about it than my co-workers. Maybe it’s just the media hound in me. When bin Laden was killed, the news and celebrations were all over every news outlet. I wanted to talk about it, and my American friends obliged me. Now, though, I want to hear Koreans’ perspectives on what the future holds, but as my Korean tutor told me last night, “They don’t seem to mind much.”

It’s just another example of the culture gap. My country’s greatest enemy dies and college kids riot in the streets. South Korea’s constant antagonist buys the farm, they quietly listen to the radio for a few moments and go back to work. I’m starting to think we Americans may be a little over dramatic.

Pictured: Americans being totally reasonable.

‘Til next time, dear readers!