A quick look at the opinions of the people
by Coral Russell
Chart Reporter

University students refuse to believe in unification or think about it

Jang Young-suk, Kim Ro-min, Cho Song-jun, Lim Jae-sang, and Kim Dong-hyun talk about politics.

This group had the most diverse views of the people we talked with. They said they don't think about unification or take it seriously. The students argued there were no similarities between the North and South.

"We can't even understand their language."

"They are rural people, they don't understand urban culture."

"North Korea is purely Korean, and South Korea is a mixture of cultures."

"I fear for the South Korean order, the order of society and the economy. Now is not the time for unification, 50 years from now perhaps."

"Most young people don't feel a necessity for unification; it is an 'abstract' idea. Older people have connections with the North; we don't have any shared experience."

About the nuclear issue, "The U.S. is overreacting. U.S. intervention in Iraq found no such weapons."

"Maybe we don't want the U.N. and the U.S. to take a role in our country. They broke Korea into pieces. The U.S. and other countries are only playing with South Korea."

"America wants to maintain a power balance in Asia with China and Japan."

"America, China and Japan don't want a united Korea."

Americans think all North Koreans want is money

In Korea on business, they thought North Korea should be bought off. All the North Koreans really want is money, and the Americans should find out their price and pay them. The Hyundai scandal proved this point. They thought it would not be in China's interest to have the peninsula united for economic reasons and for these same reasons, they would like to do business in North Korea. First, they thought they could help people by giving them a standard-of-living increase, and second, because of the low labor wages, they would be able to make money for themselves.