Buddhist prayer ribbons hang from a security fence in Paju, South Korea, near the Demilitarized Zone. (Aaron Kidd/Stars and Stripes)
As South Korean support for reunification with the North falls to a record low, confidence in the U.S. alliance is slipping as well, reflecting growing public uncertainty over both inter-Korean ties and the country’s security footing.
The Korea Institute for National Unification said Monday that only 49% of respondents in its annual government-funded survey viewed reunification as necessary.
The poll of 1,000 adults was conducted from July 10 to Aug. 25, and has an error margin of 3.1% with a 95% confidence level.
The decline was seen across all age groups, from the “war generation” born before 1950 to the “Z generation” born after 2001, the institute said.
“The decline appears to reflect the compounded effects of North Korea’s hostile ‘two-states’ claim, the continued suspension of inter-Korean relations, and domestic political dynamics,” the survey states.
The institute, a South Korea government-funded think tank, has conducted the survey annually since 2014.
Support for peaceful coexistence without unification or maintaining the status quo — described in the survey as “hostile coexistence” — reached its highest level on record.
The shift may reflect the growing distance between the two Koreas as time passes, changing global dynamics and the influence of younger generations, said Koh Yu-hwan, professor emeritus of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul.
“South Koreans long desired and put a lot of effort toward unification through cooperation,” he told Stars and Stripes by phone Wednesday. “However, in reality, the goal of unification has drifted further away.”
Koh said South Koreans once felt the “cost and pain of division” through a sense of shared ethnicity, but attitudes have become more pragmatic.
“We now live in an era of globalization, not a single-race nation. While the idea of unification emphasizes ethnic identity, North Korea stresses national identity and South Korea values global identity,” he said. “So, the younger generation may no longer feel compelled to pursue unification and instead maintain distance from the North.”
The survey also found declining confidence in the U.S.-South Korea alliance. About 65.7% of respondents said “the United States does not consider South Korea’s interests,” the institute said.
“These findings suggest that South Koreans perceive the Trump administration’s second term — marked by high tariffs and strong pressure on defense-cost sharing — as reinforcing the message that the United States prioritizes its own interests over those of allies,” the survey said.
Expectations of a future U.S. troop withdrawal also rose. The share of respondents who said U.S. forces would “never withdraw” fell from 46.5% in 2023 to 35.6% this year.
