Post-unification stability biggest 'blind spot' for S. Korea

South Koreans view domestic stability as the most important but elusive issue in the event of inter-Korean reunification, a U.S. study showed.

On a scale of zero to eight, "domestic stabilization" ranked the highest with 5.62 points, indicating it is the "most critical, yet opaque, unification issue," according to the study published this week by Beyond Parallel, a project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This means civil-military relations, law and order, and stability in the North represent the issues for which Koreans see great consequences for national interests, but for which they have relatively little prior knowledge or understanding," it said

The other top "blind spots" were cost of unification (5.6), refugees (5.51), nuclear weapons (5.47), and human rights and transitional justice (5.35).

The results were based on a survey of 108 South Korean policy experts, government officials, scholars and opinion leaders conducted from fall last year through spring this year.

Asked to assess the blind spots of other regional powers, the respondents said domestic stabilization was a priority for both the U.S. (5.39) and China (5.41).

"South Korea sees an alignment of priorities among Washington, Beijing, and Seoul because all regard domestic stabilization as a prominent unification blind spot that could provide a good platform for trilateral coordination," the study said.

Japan, in South Koreans' view, regards the issue of North Korea's nuclear weapons the biggest blind spot at 5.39.

"Domestic stability could be negatively impacted by the failure to plan for disaster risk reduction in the areas of health, environment, and infrastructure," the study added. "However, these issues received the lowest scores in terms of level of knowledge and level of concern in the index rankings. This could be an area for future policy discussions."

Source : Yonhap