Moon said as soon as she heard North Korea attacked the South last week, she immediately called and spoke with all her family.

"I have my friends, I have my parents, I have my uncles, aunts and all their nephews, cousins everybody's there and it's really heart-breaking for me," said Moon.

The shell attack killed four people and injured 18 only 30 miles from Seoul, where Keeyoun's family lives. She said her family has reassured her that she has nothing to worry about, but Moon said it's hard not to worry.

"If you hear about a war happening in other countries it's like 'Oh there's a war,' but if you family is there it's a completely different story," said Moon.

NMSU professor Ken Hammond teaches courses on east Asia. He said there's always been tension between the two countries and incidents like this have happened before. Hammond said the problem is determining how far North Korea will go with these actions.

"The question is how do you get them to stop doing things like this without precipitating an even worse crisis?" said Hammond.

Hammond believes the north is trying to send a message to the rest of Asia and the U.S. Now that everyone is listening, he doesn't foresee the situation getting out of control.

"I think it's unlikely that they'll launch some new provocation because they've gotten everybody's attention," said Hammond.

However, those words aren't reassuring enough for people like Moon.

"What if something did happen and I'm not there? What if you don't ever see them again? You don't know what you're going to expect," said Moon.

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