18% say North Korea is not a hostile entity

Kang Chang-il, senior vice chairman of the National Unification Advisory Council [Yonhap]
Kang Chang-il, senior vice chairman of the National Unification Advisory Council [Yonhap]

About half of South Koreans in their 20s and 30s view North Korea as a "hostile entity," according to a new poll.

The National Unification Advisory Council released the results of a unification poll targeting the 20-to-39 age group on Friday. Asked whether they consider North Korea a hostile entity, 21.1 percent said "strongly yes" and 28.7 percent said "generally yes," putting the combined share at 49.8 percent.

Another 32.4 percent gave a neutral response of "neither." Those who said North Korea is not a hostile entity totaled 17.8 percent — 13.4 percent answered "generally no" and 4.4 percent said "not at all."

Support for viewing North Korea as a "partner for cooperation" was limited to 27.3 percent, with 7.2 percent saying "strongly yes" and 20.1 percent "generally yes."

A neutral response came from 30.0 percent of respondents, while 42.7 percent rejected the idea of North Korea as a partner — 25.8 percent said "generally no" and 16.9 percent said "not at all."

Asked about the most desirable direction for inter-Korean relations, the largest share — 36.8 percent — said the two Koreas should pursue unification as a long-term goal while prioritizing peaceful coexistence for now.

The next most common responses were "pursue unification as a long-term goal while living as separate states for now" at 20.3 percent, "establish a two-state relationship rather than pursuing unification" at 19.4 percent, and "make unification the top priority and actively pursue it" at 11.8 percent.

Korea Research conducted the poll online from May 27 to June 1 among 1,200 people aged 19 to 39 drawn from the firm's national online panel. The maximum margin of error was plus or minus 2.83 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

Kang Chang-il, senior vice chairman of the National Unification Advisory Council, addressed the idea of a formal two-state framework at a recent press briefing. "In terms of formal logic, two states may be correct, but it is difficult for our people to accept emotionally and sentimentally," he said.


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