I am a foreigner living in South Korea. I went to Knife Gallery today, one of maybe one knife stores in this country, and attempted to purchase a knife, because I like to collect.
Before I go on, let me point out that they have a great store there with some amazing displays of Eastern swords and modern knives. Nothing against the store at all. But I do feel very sorry for them.
The guy there told me that this year, the law changed. Before, as a foreigner, I could purchase a pocket knife with a blade of up to 15 cm without a "sword permit." But apparently starting this year, the limit is 6 CM! Yes, you read right: a Swiss Army Knife is now classified as a sword in South Korea.
The booger is, in South Korea, most of the people who would have purchased such pocket knives (as tools, not weapons) are the foreigners who are used to carrying them. Because there is a perception of a pocket knife being a farmer's tool, they don't carry them much here. And that is fine, as far as it goes. But the law basically shot the legs out from under a legitimate business without giving any of these businessmen a chance to divest.
So this store can now: a) sell to Koreans who never buy what the store sells, or b) sell to collectors who want to collect the hand-forged swords they sell. Nice swords, but in the $2,000 to $5,000 range and on up, I don't see too many collectors are jumping in.
The South Korean government seems to ignore the hand-forged kitchen knives they sell here that are 6 mm at the spine, about the size of a medium bowie, and could chop off an arm at the elbow without a problem or a second swing.
The saddest part of all is that they don't seem to teach their kids history the same way we (sometimes) still do in the west; they simply don't equate "this pocket apple-cutter/screwdriver/nail trimmer is now illegal" with "there goes another of my personal freedoms, I wonder what's next." Granted, part of that is a function of the culture, and that's as may be. But that doesn't make it any better of a situation for keeping a country free. Of course, I don't mean using knives as weapons; I mean basic freedoms to indulge in knife collecting as a hobby or perhaps some other innocuous hobby that might require a blade in the 7-15 cm range.
This sort of thing is happening in the West, too, but not on this scale. Yet. And when it does, people seem more ready to recognize the eroding freedoms beyond a simple law change and raise a stink about it.
I feel sorry for the kids here, the country they will inherit.
Here's to a "free democracy" that is more scared of its own people than the Soviets ever were. It's their country, and they can run it however they want, but they don't seem too far from reunification under North Korea without having put up much of a fight.
Before I go on, let me point out that they have a great store there with some amazing displays of Eastern swords and modern knives. Nothing against the store at all. But I do feel very sorry for them.
The guy there told me that this year, the law changed. Before, as a foreigner, I could purchase a pocket knife with a blade of up to 15 cm without a "sword permit." But apparently starting this year, the limit is 6 CM! Yes, you read right: a Swiss Army Knife is now classified as a sword in South Korea.
The booger is, in South Korea, most of the people who would have purchased such pocket knives (as tools, not weapons) are the foreigners who are used to carrying them. Because there is a perception of a pocket knife being a farmer's tool, they don't carry them much here. And that is fine, as far as it goes. But the law basically shot the legs out from under a legitimate business without giving any of these businessmen a chance to divest.
So this store can now: a) sell to Koreans who never buy what the store sells, or b) sell to collectors who want to collect the hand-forged swords they sell. Nice swords, but in the $2,000 to $5,000 range and on up, I don't see too many collectors are jumping in.
The South Korean government seems to ignore the hand-forged kitchen knives they sell here that are 6 mm at the spine, about the size of a medium bowie, and could chop off an arm at the elbow without a problem or a second swing.
The saddest part of all is that they don't seem to teach their kids history the same way we (sometimes) still do in the west; they simply don't equate "this pocket apple-cutter/screwdriver/nail trimmer is now illegal" with "there goes another of my personal freedoms, I wonder what's next." Granted, part of that is a function of the culture, and that's as may be. But that doesn't make it any better of a situation for keeping a country free. Of course, I don't mean using knives as weapons; I mean basic freedoms to indulge in knife collecting as a hobby or perhaps some other innocuous hobby that might require a blade in the 7-15 cm range.
This sort of thing is happening in the West, too, but not on this scale. Yet. And when it does, people seem more ready to recognize the eroding freedoms beyond a simple law change and raise a stink about it.
I feel sorry for the kids here, the country they will inherit.
Here's to a "free democracy" that is more scared of its own people than the Soviets ever were. It's their country, and they can run it however they want, but they don't seem too far from reunification under North Korea without having put up much of a fight.
