The Marmot’s Hole

The Joong-Ang Ilbo and the East Asia Institute released some poll data that may or may not give readers some idea about popular views about Koreans’ views of their nation’s relations with the rest of the world:

A new poll suggests that a few traces of Korea’s history as a “hermit kingdom” still linger in modern South Korea. The poll suggests that the general public here has a strong distrust of neighboring countries and favors the acquisition of nuclear weapons to deter outside pressure.

The poll, conducted by the Joong-Ang Ilbo and the East Asia Institute, surveyed Korean attitudes toward globalization 60 years after the nation’s liberation from Japanese rule. The survey of 1,038 adult Koreans from Aug. 31 to Sept. 16 has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.

In particular:

In short, Koreans dislike the idea of integrating this country into the affairs of the outside world and cling to a suspicion of those who do not share their ethnic identity. Only 40 percent said Korea should increase its aid to poorer countries, for example, and two-thirds opposed the idea of easing the requirements for foreigners to obtain Korean citizenship. More than 57 percent rejected the idea that Korea should follow decisions of international organizations that differed from sentiment here.

Two-thirds of Koreans in the poll said they believed this country did not get the respect it deserved from the outside world, and an even larger majority, 72 percent, said any country had to have strong military power to survive in the world.

In a corollary to that view, support for the development of nuclear weapons has risen sharply in the past year, perhaps inspired by the assertions of North Korea that it has a nuclear deterrent. In the new poll, nearly 67 percent favored arming this nation with nuclear weapons, up from about 51 percent in a JoongAng Ilbo poll in September 2004.

I guess this means it ain’t just Americans with a healthy unilateral streak. And for what it’s worth, I happened to share the belief that Korea should arm itself with nuclear weapons. If the Chinese, Russians and North Koreans can have ‘em, why not South Korea?

Korea’s economy is very dependent on trade, but Koreans are largely resistant to opening up markets here. Nearly 69 percent said rice imports should not be allowed, and 58 percent said foreign business giants are hurting the domestic economy.

Although the specific question appears a bit ambiguous, about 70 percent of Koreans said they did not trust other countries that have important relationships here, either because of geography or alliance. Only about 20 percent said they trusted the United States, another 44 percent said they did not, and the remaining 36 percent said they did not know or gave no answer.

Judging from the Korean-language report, that 20 percent figure for the United States might have indicated an extraordinary amount of public trust, relatively speaking. Although the report didn’t cite specific numbers, it did say that for most nations, the level of trust didn’t top 7 percent, and distrust in Japan was particularly high.

The survey conducted by the Joong-Ang Ilbo and the East Asia Institute covered a wide range of issues pertaining to Korea’s “identity.” Again, I’m not going to vouch for Korean poll data, but as long as you take things with a reasonable amount of skepticism, the results were fascinating. The English version of the Joong-Ang Ilbo did translate the data pertaining to South Korean attitudes about unification:

Views on North Korea have changed significantly, the survey said. In the past, South Koreans considered the North as temporarily off-limits national territory that should be reintegrated as soon as possible, the group studying the poll results said, and considered reunification the nation’s major task. But this poll said that longing for unification is weakening; 78 percent of those surveyed said that the two Koreas are separate countries.

Other thinking on reunification has changed as well; the academics termed it more realistic than in the past. In a 1996 survey by the Sejong Institute, 30 percent of Koreans said unification was the top national priority, to be achieved at any cost. The emotional approach, however, changed over the decade, the experts said.

In the new survey, only 17 percent said unification must come as soon as possible.

While more than eight out of ten people here still see reunification as important, over half of Koreans say it should be pursued with an eye on other issues facing the country. Nearly 20 percent said there should be no hurry to achieve it, and 8 percent said only that it was “an option.”

Despite the clamor from Korea’s far left, only about 1 percent of those surveyed said the nation should be reunified under a communist political system. Over half said Korea should adopt a “one nation, two system” approach to reuniting.

The data on “Korean nationalism” was particularly interesting. There seems to be a move somewhat away from ethnic nationalism toward civic nationalism. Asked what makes a “true Korean,” 82 percent said he or she should be born in the Republic of Korea, and 81 percent said they should have “Korean bloodlines,” but 88 percent said it was more important for someone to maintain Korean citizenship rather than having spent their entire lives in the ROK. Perhaps because of this, the survey said, 28 percent of Koreans believed foreigners who have been granted Korean citizenship must be seen as part of the Korean people/race (hanminjok), but on the other hand, only 9 percent felt that Koreans who abandoned their Korean citizenship should be seen as part of the Korean people/race.

This and much, much more at the East Asia Institute’s homepage.