This photo, taken from an observatory in the South Korean border city of Paju on May 10, 2023, shows a village in the North Korean town of Kaepung on the western front-line border with South Korea. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 11 (Korea Bizwire) – Seven in 10 South Koreans support the Yoon Suk Yeol government’s efforts to shed light on North Korea’s dire human rights situation, a poll showed Thursday.
In a survey on 1,000 adults conducted by the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council (PUAC) from March 24-26, 70.5 percent of the respondents said they support the government’s policy initiative to raise awareness on North Korea’s human rights.
The PUAC, a presidential consultative body set up to draw up policies on democratic and peaceful unification, conducts the survey every quarter to gauge public opinion on unification.
By political preference, those who identified themselves as liberal voiced more support for the government’s drive, with 77 percent of such people backing the move.
Among those who claimed they were politically conservative or neutral, 69.3 percent and 68.8 percent said they are in support of the government’s stance, respectively.
The outcome appears to defy the conventional belief that liberals have negative views about the government’s efforts to publicly highlight the North’s human rights abuses on concerns that the move could provoke Pyongyang.
The result came as the conservative Yoon administration has taken a stern stance in dealing with the secretive regime’s human rights violations since taking power in May last year.
South Korea co-sponsored a U.N. General Assembly resolution on the North’s human rights in December last year for the first time in four years and disclosed to the public an annual report on its rights violations for the first time in March.
Despite the North’s escalating missile and nuclear threats, nearly half of the respondents said they support the need to provide aid to Pyongyang and seek cooperation, the poll showed.
The portion of respondents who considered the North to be a potential counterpart for cooperation and support came in at 47.8 percent, the highest since 48.4 percent in the second quarter of 2019.
Nonetheless, 34.9 percent said they are pessimistic about an improvement in inter-Korean relations, the highest since the first quarter of 2015.
The survey showed 44.2 percent expected no change in inter-Korean ties, while 19.3 percent anticipated bilateral relations would improve.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.
(Yonhap)
