It has been showed that frequent abnormal climates, such as the record-setting heat this summer, changed Koreans’ perspectives on national security threats. The viewpoint that sees climate change as the biggest threat has become just as common as one that casts a wary eye on North Korea’s nukes. Joongang Ilbo and East Asia Institute(EAI, director Son Yeol)’s jointly planned survey’s results show as such. Younger generations, most notably, saw climate change as a bigger threat.
> **Climate Change Just As Threatening As NK Nukes**
According to the results compiled on the 7th, (web surveys taken by 1006 adult men and women of 18 years of age and older, taken on on Aug 26~28, maximum allowed sampling error ±3.1% under 95% confidence interval), 51.2% of respondents (multiple answers allowed, 1st and 2nd options accumulated) answered ‘climate change and ecological problems’. 51.1% answered ‘North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats’. They were almost the same rate. They were followed by ‘Sino-American strategical competition and disputes’(42.5%), and ‘Spread of protective trade/high-end technology race’(39.7%).
In the survey conducted last year (intensive interview survey taken by 1008 adult men and women of age 18 and older, taken on Aug 25~Sep 13 2023) the most common response for the biggest conflict being encountered was North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, scoring 56.3%. Below this 55.0% picked the spread of protectionism in trade and high-end tech race, while 41.0% of respondents said that climate change was the biggest threat. A change in rankings took place within a year.
According to EAI’s analysis, this can be attributed to an increased sense of awareness on what’s known as ‘soft security’, such as health and climate issues, less sensitive topics in the past, which now rivals the awareness on ‘hard security’, made up of traditional spotlight stealer issues such as military news. The time period in which the survey was taken, during which a heatwave of 28 degrees and up continued nationwide, can also be said have affected the responses.
At the same time, it can also be gleaned that there exists the side that the threat of North Korea’s nukes became a constant factor for Koreans. Although the advancement of NK’s nuclear/missile capabilities is an object of great concern, it may be interpreted that the tendency to see the threat as an ‘old threat’, without much hopes of change, is getting more common.
> **Younger People Tend To Focus On ‘Future Threats’**
What also warrants attention is the fact that different generations had different views on security threats. The older the generation the more likely it was to see NK nukes as the biggest threat, while the younger the generation the more likely was to think of climate problems as the most important. This can be explained by the perspectives on ‘future threats’.
To share more details, 56.3% of respondents in their 60s and 71.6% of those 70 and older took the greatest stat by picking North Korea’s nuclear weapons as the biggest threat. The proportion for climate/environmental issues was 44.8% for those in their 60s and just 17.7% for those in their 70s or higher. On the other hand, the most common response for those in their 30s(52.3%; ‘NK nukes’ took 43.6%) and those in their 40s(58.2%; ‘NK nukes’ took 43.9%) picked climate change as the biggest challenge.
Director Son Yeol of EAI remarked that ‘it has been statistically revealed that the future generations are concerned about non-traditional security issues’, and ‘however, it is worth considering the fact that the political field still focuses on traditional threats and is unable to reiterate these concerns’.
It does not seem irrelevant to such a side that while the awareness of climate/environmental problems has greatly increased, the views on the necessity of dealing with such issues by governmental policies was quite different. It may mean that the expectations on politicians themselves are quite low.
On the question ‘What is the foremost diplomatic policy the government should seek?’ 34.5% of respondents, the most common, replied ‘seeking security and peace’. ‘Seeking economical prosperity’ followed by 29.3%. Although respondents picked climate change as the biggest threat, only 13.5% of them picked ‘dealing against climate change and environmental issues’.
> **Neutrality Best, But USA If Made To Pick**
Also contributing to such a perspective seems to be the opinion that global issues such as climate change is too grand of a scale for the government to solve by their own hands. In fact, although it was seen that soft security issues, such as climate change, could be cooperated on by the US and China even with their discourses, that camp is getting smaller and smaller. In the same context might be the fact that the rate of respondents who saw Sino-American strategical competition and disputes as the biggest threat (42.5%), increased from last year’s figures(36.3%).
On a related note, on the question ‘Which attitude should the Korea undertake should a serious dispute occur between USA and China?’ The response ‘Support USA’ took 41.6%, more than 14 times of the response ‘Support China’ (2.9%). Even so, 46.8% of respondents, the most common, picked ‘Remain neutral’ as their response. Although half the respondents were careful in picking a side in the Sino-American strategical competition, if it came down to picking, those in favor of the US were the majority.
In fact, 77.8% of respondents answered that ‘The Korea-USA alliance should expand beyond countering North Korean military threats towards an alliance that plays a role solving regional and global issues’. This rate was down from last year (81.8%) by a bit but it was still overwhelmingly positive. The response ‘absolutely agree’, especially, grew threefold from 8.3% last year to 25.0% this year.
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It has been showed that frequent abnormal climates, such as the record-setting heat this summer, changed Koreans’ perspectives on national security threats. The viewpoint that sees climate change as the biggest threat has become just as common as one that casts a wary eye on North Korea’s nukes. Joongang Ilbo and East Asia Institute(EAI, director Son Yeol)’s jointly planned survey’s results show as such. Younger generations, most notably, saw climate change as a bigger threat.
> **Climate Change Just As Threatening As NK Nukes**
According to the results compiled on the 7th, (web surveys taken by 1006 adult men and women of 18 years of age and older, taken on on Aug 26~28, maximum allowed sampling error ±3.1% under 95% confidence interval), 51.2% of respondents (multiple answers allowed, 1st and 2nd options accumulated) answered ‘climate change and ecological problems’. 51.1% answered ‘North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats’. They were almost the same rate. They were followed by ‘Sino-American strategical competition and disputes’(42.5%), and ‘Spread of protective trade/high-end technology race’(39.7%).
In the survey conducted last year (intensive interview survey taken by 1008 adult men and women of age 18 and older, taken on Aug 25~Sep 13 2023) the most common response for the biggest conflict being encountered was North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, scoring 56.3%. Below this 55.0% picked the spread of protectionism in trade and high-end tech race, while 41.0% of respondents said that climate change was the biggest threat. A change in rankings took place within a year.
According to EAI’s analysis, this can be attributed to an increased sense of awareness on what’s known as ‘soft security’, such as health and climate issues, less sensitive topics in the past, which now rivals the awareness on ‘hard security’, made up of traditional spotlight stealer issues such as military news. The time period in which the survey was taken, during which a heatwave of 28 degrees and up continued nationwide, can also be said have affected the responses.
At the same time, it can also be gleaned that there exists the side that the threat of North Korea’s nukes became a constant factor for Koreans. Although the advancement of NK’s nuclear/missile capabilities is an object of great concern, it may be interpreted that the tendency to see the threat as an ‘old threat’, without much hopes of change, is getting more common.
> **Younger People Tend To Focus On ‘Future Threats’**
What also warrants attention is the fact that different generations had different views on security threats. The older the generation the more likely it was to see NK nukes as the biggest threat, while the younger the generation the more likely was to think of climate problems as the most important. This can be explained by the perspectives on ‘future threats’.
To share more details, 56.3% of respondents in their 60s and 71.6% of those 70 and older took the greatest stat by picking North Korea’s nuclear weapons as the biggest threat. The proportion for climate/environmental issues was 44.8% for those in their 60s and just 17.7% for those in their 70s or higher. On the other hand, the most common response for those in their 30s(52.3%; ‘NK nukes’ took 43.6%) and those in their 40s(58.2%; ‘NK nukes’ took 43.9%) picked climate change as the biggest challenge.
Director Son Yeol of EAI remarked that ‘it has been statistically revealed that the future generations are concerned about non-traditional security issues’, and ‘however, it is worth considering the fact that the political field still focuses on traditional threats and is unable to reiterate these concerns’.
It does not seem irrelevant to such a side that while the awareness of climate/environmental problems has greatly increased, the views on the necessity of dealing with such issues by governmental policies was quite different. It may mean that the expectations on politicians themselves are quite low.
On the question ‘What is the foremost diplomatic policy the government should seek?’ 34.5% of respondents, the most common, replied ‘seeking security and peace’. ‘Seeking economical prosperity’ followed by 29.3%. Although respondents picked climate change as the biggest threat, only 13.5% of them picked ‘dealing against climate change and environmental issues’.
> **Neutrality Best, But USA If Made To Pick**
Also contributing to such a perspective seems to be the opinion that global issues such as climate change is too grand of a scale for the government to solve by their own hands. In fact, although it was seen that soft security issues, such as climate change, could be cooperated on by the US and China even with their discourses, that camp is getting smaller and smaller. In the same context might be the fact that the rate of respondents who saw Sino-American strategical competition and disputes as the biggest threat (42.5%), increased from last year’s figures(36.3%).
On a related note, on the question ‘Which attitude should the Korea undertake should a serious dispute occur between USA and China?’ The response ‘Support USA’ took 41.6%, more than 14 times of the response ‘Support China’ (2.9%). Even so, 46.8% of respondents, the most common, picked ‘Remain neutral’ as their response. Although half the respondents were careful in picking a side in the Sino-American strategical competition, if it came down to picking, those in favor of the US were the majority.
In fact, 77.8% of respondents answered that ‘The Korea-USA alliance should expand beyond countering North Korean military threats towards an alliance that plays a role solving regional and global issues’. This rate was down from last year (81.8%) by a bit but it was still overwhelmingly positive. The response ‘absolutely agree’, especially, grew threefold from 8.3% last year to 25.0% this year.