Only 31% of South Koreans believe unification with North Korea would be beneficial to them, survey shows

About 30.6% of citizens of the Republic of Korea believe that unification with the DPRK would be in their personal interests. This is evidenced by the results of a public opinion poll conducted by the Institute for National Unification of the Republic of Korea.

The survey was conducted among 1,001 respondents aged 18 and over in April-May 2024. Of those surveyed, 30.6% said they would benefit personally from the unification of the Korean Peninsula "to a large or some extent." "Thus, nearly 70% of respondents believe they would not benefit from unification," the institute said. In the 2023 survey, 26.5% of South Koreans said unification would be in their personal interests, up from 24.7% in April 2022.

At the same time, in the age group of citizens born after 1991, the share of those who believe that unification with the DPRK will bring them personal benefit is 23.5%. “At the same time, 66.4% of respondents believe that unification will be beneficial to the country. 92.4% of respondents think that unification will be beneficial to the residents of North Korea,” the study says. As the institute found, in 2024, 52.7% of respondents considered unification a necessity. In 2023, 53.9% answered this way, in 2020 - 60.2%.

The study indicates that when answering the question of whether the merger would be beneficial to them, respondents were offered to choose from four options, including “will not bring any benefit at all,” “will not bring any significant benefit,” “will bring some benefit,” and “will be very useful.” The share of those who chose the last two options was 30.6%.