70.3% of South Koreans Indifferent to North Korea... All-Time High
In the 'Unification Attitude Survey 2026' released by the Korea Institute for National Unification on the 30th, 70.3% of respondents said they were indifferent to North Korea — the highest figure since the survey began — while the share saying unification is necessary stood at 48.2%, falling short of half for the second consecutive year. Indifference toward North Korea also surpassed the halfway mark in 2015 at 50.8%, but rather than declining, it has continued to rise since then. Last year's indifference figure was 68.1%. The institute analyzed, "The fact that response rates are largely unaffected by improvements or deterioration in inter-Korean relations suggests this is closer to a structural detachment than a temporary phenomenon." The survey was conducted by interview from April 2 to 24 among 1,003 adults aged 18 or older residing across the country.
The generational gap is also stark. Among the war generation and the industrialization generation, support for unification stood in the 61% range, while Millennials and Gen Z remained at just 33.4% and 33.6%, respectively.
The tendency to choose 'peaceful coexistence' over unification was even more pronounced. 66.9% of respondents agreed with the view that "unification is unnecessary if the two Koreas can coexist peacefully without war," up 3.7 percentage points from last year (63.2%). When asked to choose between prioritizing unification or peaceful coexistence, 57.6% favored peaceful coexistence versus 16.4% for unification — a wide gap. The institute noted, "The fundamental orientation of prioritizing peaceful coexistence of the two systems over unification has been reaffirmed," adding that "the nationalism- and single-nation-centered view of unification is weakening." It further noted that such responses have been "on a long-term upward trend regardless of changes in inter-Korean relations or administrations."
Security perceptions followed a separate trajectory. Support for South Korea's independent nuclear armament remained high at 68%, and 59.6% favored the redeployment of U.S. nuclear weapons. However, trust in U.S. policy toward the Korean Peninsula fell to 47.7%, down 15.2 percentage points from last year. Among respondents who saw South Korea-U.S. relations as having deteriorated over the past year, 66.2% blamed the United States, up 13.2 percentage points from a year earlier.
