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Essential vocabularly: a local poll: 지역 설문조사 결과/unification costs through tax: 통일세/conservative: 보수적인<->radical: 진보적인

A decreasing number of South Koreans are willing to pay out of their own pockets the expenses of reunifying with the impoverished North Korea, a local poll showed Sunday.

Up to 58 percent of people here are willing to shoulder the extensive financial burden anticipated for reuniting with their communist neighbor, according to a survey of 1,007 adults nationwide.

More than 71 percent had approved of paying the unification costs through a tax in a 2005 poll conducted by Seoul’s public broadcaster KBS.

At the end of World War II, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel into the Soviet-backed North and pro-U.S. South, a separation cemented after the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce rather than a permanent peace treaty.

South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, would have to shoulder extensive costs to improve the communist North’s poor living conditions and infrastructure should the two Koreas be rejoined, analysts say.

North Korea currently depends mostly on outside assistance to feed its population of some 24 million.

“Financial difficulties at home and strained inter-Korean ties appear to have sparked the negative sentiment about having to bear the unification expenses,” KBS said in a press release. 

A team of multinational experts from Seoul, Washington and Europe concluded in May that North Korea had torpedoed the South Korean warship Cheonan, claiming the lives of 46 young sailors. Pyongyang continues to deny the accusation.

The incident had resulted in the worst inter-Korean relations in a decade with Seoul suspending all dialogue, slashing trade with the North and freezing shipments of humanitarian aid.
The conservative Lee Myung-bak government in Seoul proposed in August detailed measures to prepare for the financial burden and changes to be entailed by the reunification of the two Koreas.

The Lee government wants to activate the “unification tax system,” a method envisioned to start preparing for the estimated $1.3 trillion Seoul is anticipated to shoulder to reunite with Pyongyang.

According to the KBS poll, nearly 34 percent of those willing to pay tax for unification costs said they would pay less than 1 percent of their annual income.

Another 20 percent said they were willing to pay 1-5 percent, while 4 percent responded they would pay up to 5-10 percent.

Up to 62 percent of those surveyed said they “do not approve” of North Korea, while another 78 percent said the current security circumstances on the divided peninsula concerned them.

Nearly 88 percent said the two Koreas “are certain to reunify one day.”

Analysts believe the Lee government proposed an early activation of the tax system to better prepare for a sudden collapse of the North Korean regime, which may lead to an immediate reunification of the two Koreas.

Pyongyang has been speeding the power transfer from its ailing leader Kim Jong-il to his youngest son Jong-un in recent months, apparently concerned about the senior Kim’s health. Having suffered a stroke in 2008, Kim Jong-il has been noticeably thinner and physically less active according to the images shown in North Korean video clips.