The numbers and witness accounts send chills down the spine. At least 154 people died. Two thirds young women in their early twenties or younger. Trampled and crushed to death under other young people. The street where most were killed is 48 meters long and perhaps no more than 3.2 meters wide at its narrowest. How could that happen? The president, security authorities and emergency services fumbled to respond. The question was there before anyone had even stated it. In the grief, the silence, the shock. President Yoon Suk-yeol lays flowers to remember the young people who lost their lives. A state of mourning has been declared in South Korea. Photo: Ahn Young-joon / AP A prosperous, highly educated and well-organized country that invests so much in its young; resources, hopes and expectations. The tragedy puts South Korea’s newly elected president, Yoon Suk-yeol, to a great interpersonal test. Whether he succeeds in the task will determine his political future in his home country. It also has a lot to say for South Korea’s international position. Hard and soft power South Korea is rich. The country has a lot of hard power. Seoul is only a few miles from the border with North Korea. The constant threat of attack from the communist dictatorship makes South Korea one of the world’s most militarized societies. There is general conscription for all young men. They have a standing army of 550,000 men. In addition, there will be almost 30,000 permanently stationed American soldiers. South Korea also has soft power. So much so that South Korea is trending as a “cool” superpower. Keeping that trend going could bring enormous political gains. Soft power is not about building a popular brand around one’s country’s culture in isolation, wrote the American political scientist Joseph Nye. – Soft power is about others wanting what you want. The Korean wave For decades, South Korean soap operas have won viewers across Asia, and perhaps most importantly had their largest audience in China. It gave birth to the term “Hallyu” – the Korean wave. Then the wave swept over the West. K-Pop boy band BTS became the first to perform and be nominated at the Grammy Awards. They raised hate crimes against Asians and were invited to the White House. The boy band BTS is the biggest of all K-pop stars. In 2021, they brought the USA and large parts of the world to their feet when they performed at the Grammy Awards. Photo: Chris Pizzello / AP The film “Parasite” won the Oscar in the best film category, as the first non-Western film ever. The TV series “Squid Game” is among the most streamed series on Netflix of all time. Young South Koreans have the money and – on a weekend like this – the time to party and celebrate their own culture on a scale their parents and grandparents could never have imagined. All of this sort of collapsed in the cataclysmic stampede this Saturday night. It is being investigated whether a contributing factor to the chaos in Itaewon may have been a rumor that a South Korean super celebrity was at a bar at the popular Hamilton Hotel. Several thousand fans and party-goers are said to have flocked and squeezed into the narrow and hilly streets, hoping to catch a glimpse of the celebrity. The police never got control of the crowd. Young people come to Seoul from all over the world. Itaewon is located right next to an American base in the city. For several years, the bars here were primarily popular with American soldiers and other Western foreigners. In recent years, the district has undergone an upgrade à la Grünerløkka in Oslo or Brixton in London. The district was often called “Seoul’s answer to Brooklyn”. Dead from 14 different countries Now Itaewon is popular among young South Koreans and the area has become far more international. The tragedy reflected South Korea’s appeal to young people from around the world. Among those who died in the stampede were 26 foreigners from 14 different countries. Among them a Norwegian student. China lost four of its young. The US lost two exchange students. Iran five and Russia four. Japan lost two. France one. Xi, Biden, Putin, Kishida, Macron and Støre were among the heads of government and heads of state who expressed their condolences to the South Korean people, and to the families in their own country who had lost one of their own. Xi expressed sadness that Chinese people were among the dead and said China felt confident that the relatives of foreign citizens would be followed up in a good way. South Koreans mourn at one of the memorial altars set up in Seoul after the tragedy that claimed 154 lives. Photo: KIM HONG-JI / Reuters There is also a certain international pressure in the solidarity. It becomes stronger because Seoul doesn’t necessarily feel like a place far away. Young people know and identify their own interests with South Korea’s pop culture. For many, it is not strange to think that they themselves could have been trapped in the narrow streets of Taewon. The grief is deep and primarily belongs to South Korea. The acknowledgment of failure belongs to South Korea. But in the interpersonal sphere, South Korea and President Yoon Suk-yeol have everything to gain by taking the outside world with them in their own self-examination. Time for the cultural ambassadors South Korea must show the world how they will try to heal the grief. It’s about credibility. It’s about standing up as a cultural nation and taking responsibility once you have a pop culture with global appeal. South Korea’s popular culture is fueled by economic surplus and a – in Asia – rare free creative power. Politically, Seoul had only just begun to translate this into soft power. Everything is not at stake, but a lot can be won and lost when South Korea is now going to go on its own. To get there, the president may have to rely on the country’s unofficial ambassadors; the corps of film and pop stars, and its most creative artists.
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The pop nation must take the world with it in its own grief – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
