Support for Korean Unification Remains Below Half in New Survey
A government-affiliated survey found that 48.2 percent of South Koreans consider unification necessary, while younger respondents showed less support and broad majorities favored peaceful coexistence between two separate states.
Fewer than half of South Koreans believe unification with North Korea is necessary, according to a new survey that points to widening generational differences and growing acceptance of long-term coexistence between the two states.
The Korea Institute for National Unification found that 48.2 percent of respondents considered unification necessary. The figure was down slightly from 49 percent in 2025 and marked the second consecutive year in which support remained below the halfway point.
Age was a major dividing line. More than 60 percent of respondents born in 1960 or earlier said unification was necessary, while fewer than 40 percent of those born in 1991 or later shared that view. The gap suggests that younger South Koreans, who have no direct memory of the Korean War or the peninsula before decades of division, increasingly approach relations with Pyongyang differently from older generations.
The poll also showed strong support for an alternative to political unification. Asked whether unification would be unnecessary if South and North Korea could coexist peacefully, 66.9 percent agreed. That was up from 63.2 percent a year earlier, indicating that many respondents place stability and peaceful relations ahead of merging the two political systems.
Public disengagement from North Korea also reached a new high in the institute’s annual polling. A total of 70.3 percent said they were not interested in North Korea, an increase of 2.2 percentage points from last year and the highest level recorded since the survey began in 2014.
Meanwhile, 71.6 percent agreed with the view that North Korea is a separate state. Taken together, the results show that formal unification retains substantial support but no longer commands a majority, while recognition of the peninsula’s two-state reality has become widespread.
The findings could shape debate over how Seoul presents its long-term North Korea policy, particularly to younger voters. Governments have traditionally maintained unification as a national goal, but the survey indicates that public priorities increasingly center on avoiding conflict and managing peaceful coexistence.
The institute surveyed 1,003 adults from April 2 through April 24. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.