Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa asserts that it wasn& #39;t just MERS that prepared Korea for COVID19, but also the Sewol Ferry. "The government& #39;s response to the ferry incident was ineffectual, and that became a national trauma." http://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/View/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0002632754">https://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/V...

I think she has a point here - we& #39;re seeing right now the kind of large-scale, widely-felt anguish that people are going through in several countries as they helplessly watch their governments respond too late or too little. It leaves a mark.

Not to argue that a single news magazine front cover should be used as an indicator of the pain of that time, but... I& #39;ll never forget this front cover from the Sewol ferry reporting. The headline reads "Is this a country"