Seoul (1983: Doomsday)

Pre-Doomsday
History

Seoul has a 2000 year history stretching back to 18 BC. It has been the capital of numerous Korean kingdoms, empires, and others, including the late Republic of Korea. The city was protected by massive walls and has several old castles and palaces right next to modern high-rise buildings and the famed Korean PC Baangs (PC 방), or PC rooms. Seoul was the capital of the Republic of Korea, which by Doomsday was an ally of the US with heavy US influence. It held 40,000 US troops, and was therefore nuked by the USSR with a single SS-18 "Satan" ICBM, which air-burst over Seoul with a yield of 460 KT, or about 30 Hiroshima-sized weapons.

Impact: Doomsday
Doomsday proved devastating for South Korea, and the entire nation descended into chaos as North Korea proceeded to invade its southern counterpart. Seoul was the capital of South Korea, as well as the headquarters for the Republican navy, army, and air force. South Korea itself was hit in five locations: Seoul, Pyongtaek, the US Air Force HQ that was garrisoned there, Gunsan, another major air force base, and the US navy base in Chinhae. All four mushroom clouds were visible across the peninsula. The North Korean capital of Pyongyang had also been hit, although its leader, Kim Il-Sung, was still alive due to the early warning the bombardment of South Korea provided. He has sought refuge in a bunker twenty miles out when Pyongyang was hit, and was therefore safe. He later emerged into a ruined North and South Korea. He later said in a speech to both North and South Korea, "It is time to unite the Korean peoples under one banner, one government, one rule." He had a standing ovation that lasted for over 14 minutes.

Northern Invasion
North Korea seized the advantage by invaded South Korea with the focus on speed and resilience, pushing the South back as far as, in some places, 82 miles. Due to the fact that most South Korean leaders had been killed, in comparison to their Northern colleagues, meant that local officers organized the operations, and as a result, these were not as coordinated. The first and hardest hit was Incheon, one of the closest cities to the border. The famed Incheon International Airport was completely destroyed, and the entire city was in ruins. Most of the fighting took place in the Incheon area, with thousands of casualties on both sides. It is estimated that a combined 11,000 military personal died in Incheon, not including civilians. However, it should be noted that after the war, the population of Incheon was less than 50,000. However, catastrophe struck the North: a Chinese "invasion". Wave after wave of Chinese refugees began pouring into North Korea, escaping the devastation back home due to the Soviet nuclear strikes. The South was spared, as that it had no land borders with any country except for North Korea, and because much of it's coast was irradiated, which discouraged refugees coming in from that direction. This momentarily disrupted the North Korean offensive and South Korea began pushing them back. Soon, the border was back to pre-Doomsday borders, with the South pushing more in.

Cease-fire
In 1983, Seoul had a population of 9.3 million and was well on it's way to becoming a prominent metropolis in Asia. Immediately after Doomsday however, the population had declined to around 4.1 million, and gradually shrank as the background radiation forced many to move away, explaining its present-day population of around 75,000 city dwellers. However, Seoul was not the only one effected. While all the other targets were military targets, about 60% of South Korea's population lived within an hours distance of Seoul. This led to massive casualties as the radiation spread from the ghost town. As the North Korean army advanced, they took Incheon and the surrounding area, and was 9 miles from the smoldering wreckage of Seoul when Kim Il-Sung sounded the general retreat due to the refugees. As the refugee problem got bigger, North Korea had a Cease-Fire with South Korea. As soon as the cease-fire took place, Kim had his forces put in the North to repel the Cinese "Invasion". Most North Korean forces were sent there, and they were later criticized by the League of Nations for the massacre of Chinese refugees. One notable massacre is the "Massacre of Manpo", where some 135,000 refugees were killed. As soon as Kim Il-Sung's forces began their retreat, the Southern forces began to push them back. Soon, they were back to pre-Doomsday borders. However, South Korea did not have enough resources to pull off an invasion without the help of the US.

Aftermath of Doomsday
Doomsday had extreme consequenses for South Korea, North Korea, and Seoul itself. Seoul was hit by a SS-18 Satan ICBM fitted with a 920 KT nuclear warhead. In the first few seconds, 4.5 of the 9.3 million perished instantly, and in the next few weeks, around another 1.3 million people died from radiation, burns, or other. The population of Seoul in post-Doomsday was in the 4 millions, then shrunk to it's present population of around 75,000. However, most of these people live in buildings that have either no electricity, plumbing, etc, or with some structural damage from the nuclear blast. Howvever, efforts are being made to try to restore at least part of the city to part of its former glory, but is hampered by the fact that fallout is still in the air and much rubble must be cleared out.. As soon as the immediate problem of the Chinese refugees were over, Kim and the remnants of the South Korean government began discussing reunification. Soon, the Korean Union was founded. Seoul was, then, rebuilt by the Korean Union. It was seen as a symbol of the old days of prosperity, but it also became a symbol of unification. Both Kim and the Southern government wanted to rebuild Seoul and use it as their capital, but feared the readiation was too great and so the capital was set up in Kaeson, one of the oldest cities in Korea. At then, the Korean Union was really nothing more than a treaty agreeing to recognize each other, but later, it formed into a democratic nation when in 1998, the 7 day war broke out which lead to the end of military rule and the beginning of democracy in Korea. Soon, newly elected President Shin Sun-Soo created a Constitution and Parliment similar to modern South Korea in OTL. President Shin stepped down from power after 2 terms fo 5 years, following what he called "the best decision George Washington ever made". The next President was President Lee Hyun-Jin, who was a woman. She was the first woman leader in modern Korean history, which led to controversy from several super-sexist groups, such as the KKKK, the Ku Klux Klan of Korea. There are Asian supremacy groups who gun down whites, blacks, Hispanics,etc. There are still many problems, and South Korea has much less freedom than OTL.

Seoul and South Korea Today
Seoul today is a shadow of its former self. The center of it is basically an irradiated hole, while the some parts of the outside are fairly intact. However, it is not known whether Seoul will ever be rebuilt.

Popular Culture
Seoul has been turned into a kind of legend by the current generation, a memory of the times before unification and Doomsday. Movies, books, magazines have been made about Seoul. One noteworthy movie/documentary, called 꿈의 도시, or The City of Dreams, grossed over 600 million OTL USD. Another noteworthy publication was 서울의 죽음, or The Fall of Seoul by President Kim Tae-Jung, which sold over 3 million copies. Recently, there has been a revival in interest for Seoul and several groups, including 심장, or The Heart, based in the villages outside Seoul, have been pressuring the government to step up plans to rebuild Seoul.

Terrorism
Terrorism is a growing issue in South Korea, especially following the suicide attacks on the newly built WTC in Kaesong. Most attacks have been in Kaesong, but some have been in the outer parts of Seoul, to strike at the heart of the Korean people, who still mostly consider Seoul to be their capital. Terrorism lately has resulted in security being beefed up in airports, seaports, and military installations. Some noteworthy terrorists are: Russian Sergei Kyakov, Korean 이명임, or Lee Myung-Im, and Japanese Arata Saitō. They are all radical Communists. However, Communist attacks have gone down due to the small amout of them in Korea. There have been several terrorist attacks by the new "Existentialists" cult, which belive that if they kill as many non-believers of their cult before they die, they will be taken up by the aliens, like New Age much more radical and violent. Another threat are gangs, one of the most dangerous being The Hammer, a terrorist group that works for money and nothing else. However, recent attempts to crack down upon terrorists have made the number of deaths due to attacks go down sharply over the last 3 years following the World Trade Center attacks.

Pollution
Pollution is a major issue in Seoul, due to the fact that on Doomsday, many trees and much wildlife was destroyed by the nuclear blast. However, it shows signs of improving, thought the inside of Seoul still looks like a nuclear wasteland. Even though there was a huge jump in pollution at first on Doomsday, the rate of pollution in Seoul went dramatically down, since most cars were disabled or destroyed. Recently, the surviving villages outside of Seoul have made attempts to clean up the place, by clearing rubble, planting trees, and picking up trash.

Nuclear Fallout
There is still much fallout in Seoul and the surrounding area, and cancer rates have gone dangerously up in the last few years. However, it shows signs of subsiding, and plans have been made to map out the ruins of Seoul in fallout suits. It is planned that parts of Seoul could be started to be rebuilt by 2020, but opinions differ on the matter. Recently, the Korean National Parliment has passed a law that said that Seoul will be started to be rebuilt, at its latest, at 2035. However, it is expected that it will be started much earlier than that.

Public Transportation
On Doomsday, much of the public transportation in Seoul, including buses, trains, subways, and taxis were destroyed, and in the next few years, it seemed as though food and the basic necessities were to be more prioritized over public transportation. However, in the last 5 years, with the rebuilding of parts of Seoul and the fact that cars are extremely expensive these days have made the people much more susceptible to public transportation. However, most transportation is still done with either animal pulled carts, cars, etc, or bicycles. Attempts by the government to make a subway system in Kaesong, Incheon, Busan, and the remnants of Seoul are underway, and the first subway system in Korea after Doomsday have come online in 1997.