Political volleys between the United States and North Korea aren't rattling the man on the street in South Korea, according to Utah Army Reservists who recently returned from training exercises in South Korea.
"As far as we could tell it was business as usual, both in the Korean and American communities," said Bruce Olson, a Salt Lake attorney and commander of the Army Reserve's 395th Finance Support Command. He and 43 other reservists spent two weeks in April training with their active-duty Army counterparts near Seoul.The reserve training operations were scheduled outside of Team Spirit, the American-Korean military field exercise that always rankles North Korea.
American reserve forces scheduled to participate in this year's Team Spirit, including Utahns in the National Guard, are being held at bay as Washington uses the exercise as leverage in the West's attempts to get North Korea to allow inspections of its nuclear program.
But politics didn't play into the reservists' training. "Our (annual training) has been scheduled for months," Olson said. "It's probably the best training this unit has ever had. It was realistic and close to a potential enemy."
The reservists got close to the "potential enemy" when they visited the demilitarized zone along the North-South border. The DMZ is a popular attraction for soldiers and civilians alike, but the tours would have been canceled if any degree of alert existed, he said.