Unification less of a priority as Korean leaders prepare to talk

Public support for a single Korea on the wane in prosperous South

SEOUL:The recent detente between North and South Korea has given new life to talk of unification for the two countries divided since the 1950s.

Both Koreas have repeatedly called for peaceful unification and marched together under a unity flag at the recent Winter Olympics. And when a group of K-pop stars visited the North recently, they held hands with Northerners and sang, “Our wish is unification.”

But on a peninsula locked in conflict for 70 years, unification is a concept that has become increasingly convoluted and viewed as unrealistic, at least in the South, amid an ever-widening gulf between the two nations, analysts and officials say.

The South has become a major economic power with a hyperwired society and vibrant democracy; the North is an impoverished, isolated country locked under the Kim family dynasty with few personal freedoms.

Those unresolved divisions are why seeking peace and nuclear disarmament are President Moon Jae-in’s top priorities in Friday’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Moon Chung-in, special national security adviser to the president.

Unification — a key topic at the summits in 2000 and 2007 — isn’t expected to be discussed at any great length, he said.

Public support for reunification has declined in the South, where 58% see it as necessary, down from nearly 70% in 2014, according to a survey by the Korea Institute for National Unification.

AP South Korean police officers and a soldier stand at Unification Bridge, which leads to the truce village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, on Wednesday.