60% of S. Koreans think support for the North is improper

60% of S. Koreans think support for the North is improper. October. 17, 2016 07:43. by 세종=손영일, 권기범기자 기자scud2007@donga.com,kaki@donga.com.

Nearly half of South Koreans think that North Korea’s nuclear tests provide more threats against the U.S. than South Korea. Three out of 10 respondents (30.3%) answered that preventive strikes against nuclear facilities are necessary even at the sacrifice of civilians and more than 60 percent of the respondents reacted negatively to humanitarian support for the North. It seems that the Internet users of South Korea are cautious about North Korea’s nuclear program but also have a cynical attitude toward the North.

The Dong-A Ilbo and marketing research agency Macromill Embrain conducted a survey of 100 people aged between 21 and 59 across the nation on Sunday to ask their awareness on North Korea’s nuclear threats. About 45.6 percent of respondents said that the North’s nuclear program is providing more threats against the U.S. than South Korea. As for the reasons that the international community failed to stop the nuclear program of the North, “the international community underestimated the nuclear ambition and capability of the North” ranked at the top with 50.5 percent and “failed reactions” and “a dual tactic of the North disrupted the world” took the second and third with 32.2 percent and 27.5 percent, respectively.

Among the respondents, seven out of 10 (70.8 percent) considered that the North already developed nuclear weapons and 77.7 percent said that measures that were taken now to restrict and give a pressure are not effective to persuade the North to give up its nuclear program. About 30 percent of respondents agreed on taking preemptive actions against its nuclear facilities. On the contrary, about 44.2 percent of people answered that more talk with the North is necessary, which was 10 percentage points higher than the number of people who answered we don’t need to talk with the North (32.7 percent).

It seems that the recent North’s fifth nuclear test has reminded people of the possibility of a war on the Korean Peninsula. After analyzing 10,000 comments posted on the Internet portal sites on the day of survey, “enemy (related mentions 154 times)” and “war (related mentions 110 times)” were categorized as related search along with the key word of “nuclear (1,940 times).”