South Koreans Not Feeling the Unification Spirit

About one-fifth of South Koreans think North Korea is trustworthy, a poll said Thursday, the lowest level in a decade amid heightened tension over the communist state’s recent belligerent acts.

The survey by Hyundai Economic Research Institute, a Seoul-based private think tank, showed 22.2 percent of the 623 respondents felt that North Korea could be trusted as a “partner for dialogue.”  [Yonhap]

That’s down from a high of 52.3 percent in 2000, after the summit between Kim Jong Il and Kim Dae Jung, and before it emerged that DJ has paid somewhere around half a billion dollars for the privilege.