A Peninsula of Paradoxes: South Korean Public Opinion on Unification and Outside Powers

More by default than design, South Korea’s inter-Korean and unification policies are characterized by a mixture of paradoxes. These paradoxes reflect a host of factors, including built-in structural inconsistences, powerful historical legacies, the contrasting inter-Korean policies that various South Korean governments have pursued, the politicized nature of South Korea’s domestic debate over North Korea, and the harsh geopolitical realities of Northeast Asia.

Living with these paradoxes is a fact of life for South Koreans, but this state of affairs creates contradictory impulses. South Korea’s psychological predispositions on questions of national security are colored by disparate desires and contradictions that may be hard for outside observers to understand. For example, South Koreans’ yearning for greater strategic autonomy has long been an abiding feature of the country’s idealistic worldview, given the peninsula’s long history of invasions, occupation, tributary relations, and even outright colonization. Yet, at the same time, South Korea instinctively understands the centrality of its alliance with the United States and the harsh power politics of Northeast Asia. As much as South Koreans seek greater autonomy, they are also very concerned about possibly being abandoned by the United States. A survey conducted on behalf of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Asia Program set out to gauge South Korean public opinion on such questions.