[imText1]Five out of ten South Korean college students turned out not to be supportive to the current aid to North Korea and the Sunshine Policy.
According to a survey by a South Korean NGO, Heunsadan’s reunification department of 1,224 college students in Seoul, taken from Nov. 20 to 24, 50.4% of the respondents said the Sunshine Policy was not helpful in contributing change to North Korea and peace on the peninsula while 43.4% replied it was useful.
The poll, compared to that in 2005, in which 39.6% disapproved of the policy and 51.7% approved, shows a decrease in confidence in the South Korean government’s NK policy after the missile launch incident and nuclear test.
On reunification of the Korean peninsula, 78.3 percent of the students said the divided peninsula must reunite whereas only 9.6 percent was opposed to reunification. The positive attitude toward reunification this year is higher than that of 2005, when 68.6% supported reunification.
When asked about what North Korea meant to South Korea, 45.0% responded the North was a threat, and 40.1% said they considered it as a subject of cooperation. The percentage of the ‘threat’ response increased from last year’s 31.0%. In contrast, the ratio of ‘subject of cooperation’ answer decreased significantly from 51.5% in the 2005 poll.
However, South Korean college students’ anti-American attitude is still high; 51.4% answered the United States as being the biggest obstacle to reunification, and North Korea being the second biggest with 25.2% of respondents.
On the importance between the US-ROK alliance and self-reliance diplomacy in reunification and peace on the Korean peninsula, the opinion was almost evenly divided; 47.8% regarded both the alliance and self-reliance diplomacy were critical, while 28.0% preferred self-reliance and 23.9% rather favored the coalition with the United States.
In the meantime, one third of the respondents believed North Korea tested its nuclear weapons for its security, 25.8% thought the North Koreans did so in order to have an advantage over Washington during negotiations, and 23.0% considered it as a threat to the U.S.
