It doesn't seem possible.

The day after the Virginia Tech shootings happened in the U.S., the story hit the newspapers in Korea. This afternoon during my break at A.P. I saw the incident on the front pages of the Korea Herald, the Joongang Daily, and the International Herald Tribune. I have been following the coverage via CNN and the internet. Even though I have no connection to Virginia Tech itself, I feel a little closer having lived in Virginia just 4 months ago. Paul and I are pretty sure that, in addition to being major news all over the nation, this is rocking the D.C. area right now.
We feel a bit strange to be on the other side of the tragedy. Naturally, as ex-pats and former residents of Virginia (not to mention not having graduated from college that long ago), we feel great sorrow at this news. I wish we could be there to help our country mourn. Just reading snatches of the coverage I am impressed by how great a loss this was. To be a VT student (not to mention a parent of a VT student) that day (and this week) must have been unbelievably scary. The professors and the students that risked their lives for their fellow classmates were terrifically brave and selfless.
To be in Korea now, with this story, feels strange. I watched one of my students read about it in one of the newspapers in the teacher's lounge, only to see her face sink as it hit her that the shooter was a Korean. She seemed shocked and confused. "He was a Korean," she said quietly, an expression of disbelief on her face. "He is crazy." She is a very kind and sensitive girl, and I felt bad looking into her eyes as she faced Paul and I (both Americans, and both her teachers).
It is crazy, and I can tell that some of the Korean people feel very shaken and embarrassed by it. One Korean reporter was wondering if this incident would hinder governmental relations between Korea and the U.S. I've read about Korean American students at VT worrying about backlash or hate crimes resulting from the identity of the shooter, or whether they will even finish out the year at VT. The owner of the apartment building where Cho Seung-Hui lived with his parents in Korea (before they moved to the U.S. in '92) has even fled because she cannot handle all the publicity.
It isn't nice to say, but we have become used to school shootings. I am not proud of it, but I am used to the danger and crime that exist in large American cities. But in Korea, the rate of crime is extremely low, lower than in most major U.S. cities. No one carries weapons here (unless they're police officers). You can walk around at night (even if you're a woman) and feel perfectly safe (which is what students do every night when they leave the academies). Korean writing doesn't have hateful or violent undertones. This culture is far too bound by respect, honor, and saving face and dignity...
...which makes making sense of the VT shootings very difficult. From what we've come to learn and know about Korea, it doesn't seem possible.