In S. Korea, few jitters over North

How much the ambivalence of the public mood in the South plays a role in how the South is coordinating its diplomatic approach is unclear, although conservative critics say it definitely does.

"The complacent mood of the people does have something to do with the attitude of South Korea toward the North," says Paik Jin-hyun, a professor at Seoul National University and critic of the Sunshine Policy.

"TV particularly is government controlled, and during the presidential elections this fall, they never took the nuclear issue seriously," he adds. "Even when the North said it was going to restart its reactor, the media coverage was less than the coverage of candlelight protests against the US."

To be sure, not everyone is comfortable with their northern neighbor's behavior.

On Saturday, some 30,000 conservative evangelical Christians in downtown Seoul held a pro-US, antinuclear rally on the same spot where 100,000 anti-US demonstrators met several weeks ago.

The mostly older crowd, who carried green balloons and many of whom wept during emotional prayers, was a surprise to some observers, who have not seen many public displays of support for the US troop presence in Korea in the past year.

Organizers of the evangelical rally, which emerged from the 700,000-member Yoido Full Gospel Church, say they wanted to show the world their concern about Kim Jong Il's potential nuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

"There hasn't been enough voice for the Koreans who care about the US troops, and to say how necessary they are to our security," says assistant pastor Sam Hwan-kim.

Over the past week, Korean officials have found another rationale for challenging the antipathy that has arisen toward the US in the past year and that has contributed to the current political atmosphere - economics.

Preliminary reports show that US investments in Korea may drop in the coming year. Korean officials are anxious that the ill feeling of younger Koreans - partly based on President Bush's "axis of evil" comment and stoked by nationalist groups who want US troops off the peninsula - not get out of control.

This week, the American Chamber of Commerce in Seoul sent a draft letter to the Federation of Korean Industries stating that the current character of anti-US sentiment in South Korea is not something that should be tolerated. If it persists, the letter argued, it could result in withdrawal of investment and trade, and bring a backlash against Korean products in the US.

"Nuclear weapons in Korea is a life and death issue for South Korea and for the US. But this is not a crisis, we aren't on the brink of war," says Ben Limb, a spokesman for the incoming government of Roh Moo-hyun.

"What we are more worried about are the economic consequences of a fear of instability in South Korea. We don't want a decreasing export market and the loss of foreign investors."

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