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Over half of South Koreans oppose unification with North Korea — poll

The poll was conducted from July 10 to August 13 and involved 1,000 respondents

SEOUL, October 20. /TASS/. Slightly more than half of South Koreans no longer support reunification with North Korea, according to the results of an opinion poll conducted by the Korea Institute for National Unification, cited by Yonhap news agency.

Thus, according to the agency, the share of those who see no need to unify with North Korea (51%) has surpassed those who think that the two Koreas should unify (49%) for the first time ever.

The poll was conducted from July 10 to August 13 and involved 1,000 respondents. The Institute has been carrying out such surveys since 2014. Last year, 52.8% of those polled favored unification.

As many as 63.2% of respondents said that they believe there will be no need for unification if Seoul and Pyongyang could live in peace, with no threats of war looming. Forty-seven percent said that the two Koreas should continue to live independently, as they do now, while 25.3% of those polled said the current situation is undesirable. Around 68% of respondents said that the situation in North Korea is of no interest to them.

In December 2023, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that North and South Korea were two hostile states and Pyongyang would not pursue peaceful unification with Seoul.

On September 25, 2025, South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young acknowledged that the two Koreas are indeed separate states, but the division of the Korean Peninsula, in his words, will not last forever. Meanwhile, South Korea's National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac did not share this view, saying that the authorities reject the concept of two states. Under the South Korean constitution, its sovereignty covers the entire Korean Peninsula.

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