SEOUL — When Johnnie Davis heard Monday that North Korea had tested a nuclear missile, her first thought was, "Here we go again."

Just a week and a half ago, her family, like all other U.S. military families across South Korea, had practiced procedures for emergency evacuation during the semi-annual Courageous Channel exercise.

"In the back of your mind, you don’t think it’ll actually be needed. But now it’s becoming more important to know how to evacuate," said Davis, who lives in Seoul with her two children, ages 8 and 11. Her husband is an Army officer at Camp Red Cloud, near the border with North Korea.

"I wish I was back home, but I’m stuck," she said.

At U.S. Army Garrison-Yongsan, many troops, off duty because of a four-day Memorial Day weekend, hadn’t heard about the test until a reporter told them Tuesday afternoon. Among them was Cpl. Lorenzo Hasiugulpiy, whose wife and two children live with him in Seoul. The couple is expecting another child, and he said he now wonders if he should have brought his family here.

"I’m worried now," said Hasiugulpiy.

If the situation escalated, he said he would consider sending his family back to the U.S. because he would be worried about their safety, and distracted from his job.

Many troops, however, weren’t worried.

Col. Darryl Murch, head of the 175th Financial Management Center, said he was concerned because North Korea had broken its promise not to conduct more tests, and in doing so had made it more difficult for other countries to engage the communist nation. But he wasn’t worried about his safety.

"The threat has always been there," he said.

Meanwhile, many South Koreans seemed less concerned with the nuclear test and more with the circumstances surrounding the suicide of former President Roh Moo-hyun.

"I understand that the global community or foreigners living abroad ... see North Korea as a big threat. But we, the South Koreans, living at the core of this issue don’t feel that way," said Kwon Young-jun, 33.