“Should We Join Ties With North Korea In Case of Armed Conflict Between N. Korea and the U.S.?”

A public-opinion poll result showed 20 percent of those polled answering that South Korea should join hands with North Korea in case the U.S. and North Korea go into armed conflict.

In the poll conducted on November 12 and 13 on 1,001 people over twenty years old on the first edition anniversary on November 15 of “Frontier Times,” an internet newspaper with a tendency of conservatism and right-of-center democratic ideologies, which Lee Won-chang, the former congressman of the Grand National Party, made, the limit of sampling error was 95 percent and the confidence level was ±3.1 percent.

According to this poll, which asked in case of conflict between North Korea and the U.S., which subject nation they would choose a union with as South Koreans, 49.1 percent of the respondents chose the U.S, and 30.6 percent said that “they don’t know,” while 20 percent of the respondents chose North Korea.

The age range of the people who chose North Korea consisted mostly of those in their 30s (25.4 percent), 40s (21.9 percent), 20s (20.6 percent), and 50s (18 percent), respectively. There were more women than men, 17.1 percent and 23.5 percent, who answered in favor of union with North Korea.

Associates from “Frontier Times” said, “It shows that a group which is pro-North Korean and anti-American has unexpectedly formed in our society.``

On the other hand, 56 percent of respondents acknowledged that as a first consideration for the South and North Korea to normalize relations, South Korea should receive an apology from North Korea for incidents such as the Korean War, the Aungsan bombing incident, and the KAL 007 incident. On the other hand, 33 percent of respondents said, “There is no need to raise an issue about the past.”

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com