Download Tensions are cooling down on the Korean peninsula two months after North Korea attacked a South controlled island.
The Seoul government recently agreed to hold military level talks with the Pyongyang regime in the near future.
The shelling of Yeonpyeong Island killed two South Korean marines and two civilians.
Almost all of the island’s 15-hundred inhabitants fled to the mainland.
Most are still living either with family or in government supplied housing.
But their support won’t last much longer. And some islanders say they still don’t feel safe to return home.
From, Gimpo City, reporter Jason Strother has more.
Han Bok Yeo welcomes me to her 7th floor apartment in Gimpo City.
It’s an hour by train outside of Seoul and a four and a half hour ride by bus and ferry to her real home on Seo-Yeonpyeong Island. A smaller islet that came under fire by North Korea on November 23rd.
The 61-year old was working in her seafood restaurant on the island when the attack occurred.
She still seems visibly shaken when she recalls what happened that day.
“It was so chaotic and I panicked a lot. I didn’t even know the attack was happening until I got a call from a friend on another part of the island. At first I thought it was a normal military drill, but when we realized it wasn’t we all fled into the mountain.”
After the attack, she and some neighbors boarded a fishing boat bound for the closest port in the city of Incheon. Han hasn’t been back to her home since.
She now lives with several of her island neighbors in this very spacious and modern apartment. Around 900 islanders live in their complex, all paid for by the South Korean government.
“Normally, we just watch tv, some people go to church, sometimes we take walks. But we have a hard time getting used to our new surroundings and all the air pollution here.”
Han says she wants to return to Seo-Yeonpyeong Island as soon as possible.
But after two months of abandonment, most homes on the islands have frozen pipes and busted boilers, says 51-year old Lee Seong-bon.
He’s a member of a residents committee that began after the evacuation last November.
“Temporary shelters on the island are not war enough to live in. And many homes still have cracks and damage from the North’s shelling. And due to all the snow, water is leaking into many homes.”
Lee says the government should try harder to fix these problems.
But the government, says its done enough.
An official from the South Korean Department of Disaster Management,who did not want to go on record, says homes on the island are fine.
And that islanders keep asking for more money.
But the government won’t give any further compensation and all financial and housing support for them is set to end on February 18th.
Lee Seong-bon says the residents will push for an extension of aid.
But he adds, there’s still one other concern that many islanders have and that’s their safety following the attack last year.
“We want an apology from North Korea over thee attack. They should also promise that there will be no more future provocations, but we also want a stronger guarantee from the South Korean government that they will better protect the island’s residents.”
Back up in the 7th floor apartment, Han Bok Yeo is serving some instant coffee for two of her housemates, both in their nineties.
She doesn’t seem too concerned whether North Korea apologizes or not for the attack on her home.
“I don’t know a lot about these government talks and I don’t really care about them. I just want to go back to the island, whether it’s a result of these discussions or not.”
