South Korean President Moon Jae-in (L) and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shake hands after Kim crossed the inter-Korean border at the Joint Security Area of Panmunjom on April 27, 2018 for a meeting with Moon that marked the third inter-Korean summit. (image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Despite a recent chill in inter-Korean relations, more than seven out of 10 citizens living in Seoul still believe that South and North Korea should be unified, a survey showed Wednesday.
According to an online poll of 2,000 citizens conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 74.2 percent of the respondents said that unification with North Korea is necessary. The percentage remains the same as last year.
Asked about when unification could be realized, 25.6 percent replied that they expect reunification within 20 years, followed by 20.2 percent who replied within 30 years.
Some 17 percent of them replied that reunification is impossible to achieve.
Asked about the prospects for inter-Korean relations in the next five years, some 12.4 percent said relations will grow worse. Some 39.5 percent replied positively, while 48.2 percent replied that relations will remain unchanged.
Some 70 percent said the possibility of a denuclearized North Korea remains low in the future.
The survey was conducted from Nov. 25 to Dec. 3 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
The two Koreas are technically in a state of war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
(Yonhap)
