Although majority of South Koreans still see a need to reunify their country with North Korea, the number of people in favor of reunification has dropped significantly due to a series of recent provocations by the North, a survey showed Thursday.
According to a survey conducted by the National Unification Advisory Council, 74.4% of respondents said they saw a need for peaceful reunification of the two Koreas. The ratio marked a 7.7% drop from 82.1% in the fourth quarter of 2015, and the lowest level since the presidential council began conducting the quarterly survey at the start of last year, it said. The worsening of sentiment toward the North was clearly more apparent among the younger generations as only 20.1% of respondents in their 20s said the divided Koreas must reunify, while more than half of those in their 50s and 60s said reunification was necessary.
The council attributed the drop to recent military provocations from Pyongyang that included two nuclear tests since the start of this year and missile launches, followed by the shutdown of the countries joint industrial park in Kaesong.
The two Koreas technically remain at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended with only an armistice agreement, not a peace treaty.