Local CEOs view NK as biggest potential risk: poll

Three out of four top corporate managers in South Korea expect North Korea to pose the biggest risk to the South over the next decade, a poll showed Sunday.

In a survey by the Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI) on 373 CEOs at local enterprises, 73.2 percent said changes in North Korea will be the biggest unpredictable risk facing South Korea in the next 10 years.

Nearly 10 percent of the respondents cited democratization in China as the biggest potential risk for South Korea, followed by natural disasters (8.3 percent), weakening of the U.S. dollar (5.1 percent), hyperinflation (2.1 percent) and war (0.5 percent), according to the poll conducted for four days, starting on April 25.

Slightly over half of the CEOs suggested that Seoul prioritize strengthening its partnership with Beijing in order to manage risks on the Korean Peninsula, while 35.4 percent pointed to the United States as the "priority partner," followed by North Korea (8.8 percent), Japan and Russia (both at 1.6 percent), and the European Union (0.5 percent), it noted.

Moreover, 63.3 percent said they want to expand holdings of the Chinese yuan, while only 19.3 percent expressed wishes to increase U.S. dollar reserves.

"Local CEOs seem to take security risks, like changes in North Korea and democratization in China, more seriously than traditional economic risks, such as inflation," said Park Joon, a senior researcher at SERI. (Yonhap)