In the United States, citizens are hanging to the edge of their seats for updates on a tense and closely-followed situation with North Korea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But life is still moving as usual in the Pacific. Local students and military dependents are boarding busses for school every morning. Service members are taking leave and traveling with their families around the region. And many troops stationed there say the panic level is considerably higher in the U.S. than it is across the Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you walk around the streets of Seoul you wouldn\u2019t think for a second anyone is nervous of war,\u201d Capt. Phil Hilaire, a U.S. Army operations officer stationed in Seoul, told Military Times on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secretary of Defense Gen. Jim Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford joined military leaders in Seoul for two days of talks, and on Friday visited the Demilitarized Zone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One Okinawa-based Marine who has lived on the island before said he doesn\u2019t feel more of a threat now than he did on his past rotations. It\u2019s an ebb and flow of tension, he says. But he isn\u2019t scared to let his children travel around the region or send his son to play sports games in Seoul, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hilaire, who has been stationed in Seoul since February said, \u201cPeople are a lot more worried in the States than they are here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had several friends reach out to me while I\u2019ve been out here inquiring how I\u2019m doing and whether I\u2019m safe,\u201d he said in a message to Military Times. \u201cMeanwhile nobody out here is as nervous of a war breaking out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Military leaders in Okinawa insist even with increasing rhetoric, mission and orders have not changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom our perspective in the MEU it has not changed,\u201d Col. Tye Wallace, commanding officer of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, said in a late-September interview at III MEF headquarters at Camp Courtney, Okinawa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur job is to be a crisis response force at all times \u2014<\/em> whatever that crisis might be. We always train for the most dangerous, and we have the flexibility to change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If North Korea were to invade South Korea, the Marine Corps\u2019 31st MEU would likely be among the first American units called in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe will go where they ask us to go,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cWe are one of the fastest elements that could embark and move and be where they need us to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Col. David E. Jones, deputy commander of Marine Corps Installations Pacific, said in a late September interview on Okinawa: \u201cI would say there\u2018s always anxiousness. Do I feel nervous? No, I don\u2019t. People go on with their daily lives. All of our allies in the region and leadership have stated this is a diplomatic solution we\u2019re looking for.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n President Donald Trump has previously said the United States would \u201ctotally destroy\u201d North Korea if necessary to protect itself and its allies from Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Oct. 7, Trump said \u201conly one thing will work\u201d in dealing with North Korea after previous administrations\u2019 diplomatic efforts failed. Trump did clarify his comments, but many people believed he was suggesting that military action was under consideration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The North Korean nuclear threat is not new, Kang In-sun, Washington bureau chief for South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, told a group of reporters and analysts at a D.C.-based Korea Economic Institute panel on Oct. 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said when asked by an American friend if her family in Seoul had plans to move south to avoid potential military threats: \u201cNo, I have never thought about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kang feels more alarm and worry when reading U.S. news and living in Washington, D.C., she said, than in South Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But President Donald Trump\u2019s July \u201cfire and fury\u201d comments in August are something South Koreans are taking very seriously, she said. The rhetoric is something the South Koreans haven\u2019t seen from a U.S. president before, and it is giving fuel to North Korea, she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before Trump\u2019s July comments, Kang asked friends in South Korea if they were prepared for a military strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt the time, they just laughed,\u201d she said. \u201cAre you kidding? We are OK. We have experienced these kind of things hundreds of times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut this time they are worried,\u201d she said, noting that she still doesn\u2019t think war is imminent. \u201cIf something happens, where do we hide ourselves? \u2026. If that\u2019s a nuclear attack, then what should we do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. troops understand the seriousness of a North Korean threat, and say they are watchful and ready. On Okinawa, III Marine Expeditionary Force\u2019s motto is \u201cfight tonight,\u201d and it has been and will continue to be prepared for anything, Marines there say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mattis has hammered to Marines that Korea is a top priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But so far, a North Korean threat is not stopping most troops in the Pacific from taking leave, traveling or enjoying life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Navy Yeoman Second Class (YN2) Samantha Rosemond is attached to Commander Fleet Activities Okinawa in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAlert and prepared. Those are the words that will always stand strong here,\u201d she said in an email Oct. 13. \u201cWe are aware of the situation that is currently at hand but nonetheless we still enjoy Okinawa to the fullest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n