80% Back Inter-Korean Summit

By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter

In a recent survey, 78.9 percent of those polled said they were in favor of the two Koreas holding an inter-Korean summit, with half favoring President Lee's precondition that Pyongyang's denuclearization be included on the agenda of the talks.

In the opinion poll of 1,800 adults last week, 12.4 percent answered that it would be inappropriate for the Lee administration to seek an inter-Korean summit for the time being, while 8.7 percent were undecided on the issue.

The survey was conducted by ACE Research at the request of the National Unification Advisory Council.

It showed that 50.2 percent responded that any inter-Korean summit should be arranged on condition that the deadlocked issue of the North's denuclearization is discussed.

Of the respondents, 28.7 percent said the high-level talks should be promptly held without conditions.

Asked what impact the summit would have on inter-Korean relations, 45.2 percent answered it would have a positive one, 5.9 percent a negative one and 41.8 percent that the effect would not be noticeable.

Asked if Seoul should link Pyongyang's nuclear issue with inter-Korean business projects, 71.7 percent showed their support for the idea, while 24.7 percent opposed it.

The survey showed that 84.8 percent viewed the unification of the two Koreas as important. It also found that 65.6 percent thought that unification should occur gradually.

As for the cost of unification, 52.4 percent said they were willing to share the burden, while 47.6 percent said they would be reluctant to do so.

In commentary posted Monday on Forbes.com, Charles Wolf, a senior economic adviser at the RAND Corporation, estimated that the costs of the unification of the two Koreas would be $1.7 trillion, nearly twice South Korea's gross domestic product (GDP).

About 62 percent said that they are willing to participate in community programs to help North Korean defectors.

leeth@koreatimes.co.kr

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