By Steven Denney
Young South Koreans are more likely to be hawkish toward North Korea — particularly in the face of provocations.
For many young South Koreans, North Korea’s latest nuclear test is “barely a blip.” Of course, there are those who take notice, like males currently serving their mandatory two years in the military and those yet to serve. But it is true that far greater immediate impact is perceived outside of the peninsula than within. The latest provocative step taken by North Korea is nothing new, and it isn’t exactly a pressing issue. But lurking beneath the ambivalence and hidden in the shoulder shrugs is an increasingly hawkish attitude toward a country whose members were once considered by many, if not most, to be part of the same nation.
Those coming of age today (the 20s age cohort: university students and college-age people) are doing so under political conditions very different from their barely older compatriots (those in their 30s and 40s). There are many ways to describe these conditions, but the simplest explanation might read as such: political conditions today have been shaped by post-Sunshine Policy politics and the armed provocations of 2010. The result, for young South Koreans, is a relatively more hawkish political attitude towards North Korea.
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