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South Korean annual poll on national security

Fears of war breaking out on the Korean Peninsula have grown substantially since the first year of the Park Geun-hye presidency, a recent survey shows.

The Ministry of Public Safety and Security (MPSS) announced findings on June 23 from an annual survey on South Koreans’ perceptions on national security. Conducted between May 30 and June 13 by the polling organization Korea Research Center, the survey examined 1,000 university students, 1,000 adults aged 19 and over, and 1,000 young people from around the country.

The results showed 35.7% of ordinary adults answering that the possibility of a full-scale war between South and North Korea was “high.” 79.5% said they believed the possibility of a localized armed provocation was high.

The totals were 10 to 20 percentage points higher than the respective rates of 24% and 60.8% found in a survey in the Park administration’s inaugural year of 2013.

At the same time, the rate of adults reporting low levels of concern about a possible full-scale war dropped to 61.2% this year from 71.7% in 2013, while the rate of those seeing a localized armed provocation as unlikely was down by half from 34.7% to 17.9%.

The survey also showed 63.2% of university students saying they would fight if a war broke out. The rate was up 7.2 percentage points from 56% last year. When asked the same question, 83.7% of ordinary adults and 56.9% of young people said they would fight.

But the levels dropped sharply when respondents were asked if they would come back and fight if war broke out while they were staying overseas, with only 40.9% of ordinary adults, 19.9% of university students, and 16.8% of young people saying they would immediately join the fight.

Among ordinary adults, 49.1% gave “the state” as an answer when asked which value should be paramount if a war occurred. University students and young people gave a very different answer, with 68.8% and 60.7% saying “individuals” and “the family” should come first, respectively.

The survey had a margin of error of ±3.1% and a 95% confidence level.

Launched in Nov. 2014, the MPSS conducts annual surveys of the public’s security consciousness every June. Critics have attacked its surveys as a waste of taxpayer money, noting that the Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Patriots and Veterans’ Affairs already conduct similar examinations.

“The MPSS’s role is to prepare for and provide assistance in emergency situations such as wartime,” said a source with the ministry. “Surveys of the public’s security consciousness have been conducted since 2008, when it was the Ministry of Public Administration and Safety.”

Meanwhile, Seoul’s Gangnam District announced on June 23 that the “Song of June 25” - which begins with the lines “Ah, how could we forget this day?” - would be played at the district office and 22 local neighborhood centers at 8:50 am on June 24 for the 66th anniversary of the Korean War’s outbreak.

District mayor Shin Yeon-hee gave orders to plan the event after a local resident proposed honoring June as “patriots’ and veterans’ month”.

By Won Nak-yeon, staff reporter

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