Today marks the 54th anniversary of Yuk-i-o (6-2-5, or 6-25) Day in Korea. On this day in 1950, the North Korean army stormed across past the 38th parallel, starting the Korean War.
Now, Yuk-i-o (like "9-11," I guess you don't need to say "Day") shouldn't be confused with Yu-gi-oh, the famous Japanese cartoon/card game. If you don't know what that is, well don't worry about it -- suffice to say it's a kid thing....
However, were it not the notation in my agenda, I wouldn't have been able to tell today was anything significant. Nothing was in the Korea Times about it, and my coworkers don't seem to know anything about any memorial ceremonies.
This is surprising for me, since the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor is commemorated every anniversary in Hawaii. I suspect that the lack of attention is due in part to the current warming of North-South relations.
Recently, both sides' navies have exchanged radio frequencies to avoid confrontation in the Yellow Sea. They've also agreed to stop blasting propaganda across the DMZ, and today the newspapers announced their agreement to march under the Unification Flag in the Athens Olympics. With family reunions occuring with regular frequency and the positive tone of the six-way talks in Beijing, things are definitely looking up for the peninsula.
So I guess the timing's not right for this kind thing. Although everyone is well enough aware what day it is, it appears to be the kind of date for schoolchildren to know about and seniors to to quietly comtemplate -- a publicly recognized day, if not a public holiday.
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