48% of Youth Would Support N. Korea in Case of US Attack
Survey Shows Half of Young Generation Are Progressive
By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter
Almost half of juniors surveyed, who will get their first voting rights in the 2007 presidential election, said in a recent poll that South Korea should side with North Korea if Washington attacks nuclear facilities in the North without Seoul's consent.
In the survey of 1,000 youngsters aged between 18 and 23, conducted by The Korea Times and its sister paper the Hankook Ilbo on Feb. 16-19, nearly 48 percent of respondents said that if the U.S. attacked nuclear facilities in North Korea, Seoul should act on Pyongyang's behalf and demand Washington stop the attack.
But 40.7 percent of them said Seoul should keep a neutral stance in the event of such attacks, while 11.6 percent said South Korea needs to act in concert with the United States.
A political expert in Seoul said that the poll results should not be interpreted as meaning young South Koreans are anti-American.
``To me, the survey does not hint at our youngster's hatred for the United States,'' Kim Soo-jin, politics professor of Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said in a telephone interview. ``I interpret it as their opposition to any attempt to solve the nuclear crisis by armed force.''
Regarding South Korea's aid programs for North Korea, 46.2 percent of the interviewees said they think the current level of support is acceptable, while 28.1 percent of them said that it should be reduced.
South Korea plans to provide North Korea with 1.2 trillion won ($1 billion) in aid this year, including rice and fertilizers. The total sum amounts to 0.16 percent of South Korea's gross national income.
Peaceful unification was the most preferred method of reintegrating the two Koreas, receiving the approval of 54.1 percent of respondents. But 35.5 percent said they have no problem in maintaining the status quo if the two sides can coexist peacefully.
Nearly 40 percent of respondents chose China as the partner most important for South Korea to keep friendly relations with. The United States came next with 18.4 percent and North Korea came third with 18 percent.
The United States has traditionally been considered the most important ally of South Korea since Washington's participation in the 1950-53 Korean War to defeat the North's invasion.
As for the U.S. Forces Korea's possible engagement in a conflict between China and Taiwan, 56.2 percent of respondents said that South Korea should declare its neutrality as there is actually no way to bar Washington's move.
Nearly 22 percent of those who answered said South Korea should cooperate with its ally, the United States, while 16.8 percent said Seoul should oppose the U.S. intervention as South Korea could be involved in the conflict.
As potential voters in the 2007 presidential elections, 20.1 percent of respondents picked Rep. Park Geun-hye, chairwoman of the largest opposition Grand National Party (GNP), as the most appropriate candidate to become the next president.
Lee Myung-bak, Seoul city mayor and a GNP member, placed second with an 18.5 percent approval rating, followed by former prime minister Goh Kun (14.6 percent) and chairman of the ruling Uri Party Chung Dong-young (8.5 percent).
A law revised last year lowered the voting age by one year to 19, making the 2007 presidential election have an additional 4.2 million voters, who were born between December 1982 and December 1988.
In the 2002 presidential election, the voter turnout of those aged between 20 to 24 stood at 57.9 percent.
In the upcoming local elections in May, young people favored Kang Kum-sil, former justice minister and a Uri Party member, as Seoul mayor even though she has not yet declared her candidacy.
She topped the list of possible candidates with a 36 percent support rate, followed by a far runner-up, Rep. Hong Joon-pyo (8.4 percent), a veteran politician of the GNP.
Half of the respondents considered themselves ``progressive'' (50.1 percent), while 21.1 percent of them said they are ``conservative.''
Many of the respondents had rosy expectations for the future of South Korea. Nearly 43 percent of them said the country's future is bright, while 15.7 percent saw it negatively.
Media Research was commissioned to conduct the survey. The poll has a plus or minus 3.1-percent margin of error and a 95 percent confidence level.
