Down in the southern part

Busy as usual so haven't gotten around to any interesting posts lately. I was, however, greeted with the 'Breaking News' headlines on the BBC World Service last Monday as they told the tale of Kim Jong-'Kaboom'-il's most recent foray into more explosive endeavours. Well, seeing as it seems inconclusive as to whether or not the bomb detonated was in fact nuclear, the whole event seems shrouded in uncertainty and hence less significant than it might be otherwise. Particularly since I'm pretty much as far away from Pyeongyang as can be while still being in Korea, I'd say for the most part no one round here is overly concerned.
That is not to say that the powers that be are taking the situation lightly. A male colleague received notice that if called to duty he would have to be in Seoul within 56 hours (all men here serve two years of military duty and then are in the reserves for a good long time after that). Also, there was a surprise air-raid drill on Monday afternoon which gave myself and my students quite a start (it's loud). There are actually routine drills here, but always at the same time on the same day: Friday afternoons at 2pm, about every 2 or 3 months. During these drills you can here the sirens blaring, and all traffic comes to a halt for the duration, bout 10 minutes or so. At the univerisity, the main gates close, and in addition to vehicular traffic, all pedestrians within are barred from the main throughway. So yeah. Things between the North and South are tense, but things in Busan are pretty much as usual.