Teachers heading to South Korea are often unaware that North and South Korea are technically at war. In many cases it is friends or family that start quizzing them and asking about safety and security in Korea that this "scary situation" becomes apparent... but is it scary... in a recent poll run on the Footprints Recruiting website, roughly 27% of people said the political situation in North Korea did negatively impact their decision to teach in South Korea.
In a recent article in the Korean Herald the national news agency reports that North Korea is demonstrating that they are looking to restart the stalled multilateral talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and that they are aiming to create better relations with South Korea and the United States.
One of the key indications that the North Korean regime is moving toward better relations this year is the New Year's message from the North directly calling for the need to "open the path for improving relations between the two Koreas". This could be in part as a result of the smoother relations between the USA and North Korea which often leads to better relations between the North and South Koreas.
Whether this is a new year's resolution for the mighty Kim Jong-Il or whether this is a result of new sanctions by the UN after the last nuclear missile test that have crippled the North's economy and decreased the aid they continue to receive monthly or whether this is a regime realizing their closest ally is fully embracing capitalism and they are losing relevance, this year could be a significant year in warmed relations between the two Koreas. Whatever the reason, the North is stepping forward with a fresh face and a new approach to the New Year that could mean South Korea may yet win back a long lost friend.
~ Cooper Darby (teacher in South Korea)
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“I'd like to start off by saying that my choice to teach abroad in Korea was one I know I will never regret! Footprints made it very easy to communicate with the school regarding details of where I'd be living and what I'd be teaching as well as taking care of my flight information. At the airport the morning we left, my boyfriend and I encountered overweight bags and extremely long lines at security, and we missed our flight by literally one minute. As we watched our plane pull from the gate, we just about lost our minds and any hope that we'd make the long journey we'd been planning for so long. We made one simple phone call to the travel agent, Claus, that Footprints set us up with. It was 6AM where he was on a Monday morning when we called in a panic. He said, "Stay by your phone," and we knew that he would fix this fiasco for us. Luckily, while Claus was searching for a solution, a woman from United Airlines was able to book us on another flight so that we would make our connection out of the U.S. to Seoul. We would like to thank Claus and Laina at Footprints for all their help in getting us to Korea!
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