More soldiers doing the right thing in Korea:

Fifth-grader Peter Kim boards a bus most mornings that takes him through a series of gates manned by armed soldiers to a school less than a mile from the North Korea border.

“My parents wanted me to go here because it is a good place to learn English, and we can study hard in this place,” the boy said.

He attends Daesungdong Elementary School, which lies amid the heavily armed DMZ and is visited twice a week by English-teaching U.S. soldiers.

What his family, friends and school officials apparently don’t think much about is any threat that might be posed by the political posturing of North Korea, which has warned of military action against South Korea and the United States repeatedly in recent weeks.

“I think the North Korean people are very poor and very angry,” Peter said, adding that he and his classmates have little or no interest in what is going on just to the north of their school.

U.S. Army Spc. Jacob Wilderman, who has been teaching at the school for several months, said that if the children of Daesungdong are at all concerned about North Korea, they don’t show it. “They are just like any other kids,” he said. “They focus on kid things.”

Last month, the 30 students of the DMZ held an assembly during which small groups danced and sang along in English to songs like The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and The Carpenters’ “Top of the World.”

After the presentation, U.S. soldiers manned tables for an “English market,” during which students used play American money they had earned through their schoolwork to buy toys and food.

Were it not for the continuing participation of the U.S. military, the school likely would be shuttered.  [Stars & Stripes]

Read the rest to see how these soldiers kept this school open.

From my time teaching English at a school in Uijongbu I can tell you that soldiers teaching at the schools is extremely popular with the students.