By You Soo-sun

Graphic by Cho Sang-won

A majority of Koreans believe China, of all countries, finds unification of the two Koreas least desirable.

Fifty-one percent of the respondents said they believe China least prefers inter-Korean unification in a survey conducted by Hankook Research between Oct. 25 and Oct. 26.

This prevailed across all age groups, regions, occupations, political identification and support of political parties of the survey respondents.

Less than half of this number, or 20.7 percent, found it was Japan that least prefers this scenario, followed by the United States at 14.8 percent, North Korea at 7.9 percent, and Russia at 2.5 percent.

Dr. Kim Chul-woo, Military Research Fellow at Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, echoed this view.

"China still has more to gain by having control over North Korea," Kim said. "North Korean provocations still serve to benefit China as it allows it to keep the U.S. and Japan in check ― as long as it is under their control."

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Kim argued this is still the prevalent belief among Chinese scholars.

Yet, there were noticeable demographic differences in the survey results.

First, more people who identified themselves as being politically conservative found it was China that least prefers unification. Sixty percent of the conservatives said so, compared to 44.4 percent of liberals.

Likewise, supporters of the right-leaning parties held the same opinion ― 64 percent of the minor conservative Bareun Party and 61.1 percent of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party supporters answered this way, compared to 46.1 and 45.2 percent of those who supported the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and the minor liberal Justice Party, respectively. Supporters of the People's Party, regarded as a center-right party, fell right in the middle of this range.

Second, this view was more widely shared among the youngest and oldest group of the respondents. Fifty-seven percent of those aged between 19 and 29 said so, as well as 55.6 percent of those in their 60s or older compared to less than half of those in their 30s, 40s, and 50s.

Third, a much larger share of those who politically identify as liberals thought Japan and the U.S. least preferred Korean unification than those who identify as conservatives, reflecting the stronger anti-U.S. and Japanese sentiments among liberals.

Among liberals, 28 percent point to Japan and another 21 percent America. This is in stark contrast with the conservative respondents of which only 15 percent and 11 percent pointed to Japan and America, respectively.

The survey was conducted by Hankook Research on the occasion of The Korea Times' 67th anniversary.