I doubt Korean voters even care much about he reunification issue any more to get worked up about Lee Jae-myung abandoning this principle in the ROK Constitution:
Ruling Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, left, shakes hands with a supporter as he arrives in Boeun County in North Chungcheong Province, Sunday. Yonhap
Ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung has created a controversy by stating “it is too late to pursue the unification” between the two Koreas, as this challenges South Korea’s Constitution as well as the DPK’s manifesto.
During a meeting with university students in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, Saturday, Lee made the statement, adding “there is no need to elevate hostility by denying each other’s system and arguing over which can be absorbed by which.”
Lee made the remarks in answering a question about what would distinguish his North Korea policies from that of previous administrations.
The DPK candidate noted that he prefers a “de-facto unification status,” saying, “There is the argument that we should refrain from being too political and rather focus on practical approaches.”
Lee’s comments brought on a backlash as they go against South Korea’s Constitution, Article 4 which stipulates: “The Republic of Korea shall seek unification and shall formulate and carry out a policy of peaceful unification based on a basic free and democratic order.”
A reunification banner hangs on a fence near the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, May 24, 2017. (Aaron Kidd/Stars and Stripes)
Less than half of South Koreans believe it’s necessary to reunify the war-divided peninsula, the lowest percentage in over a decade, according to a recent poll by Seoul National University.
Roughly 44% of respondents to the survey conducted between July and August said it is at least somewhat necessary for North and South Korea to reunify, said the poll released Tuesday by the university’s Institute for Peace and Unification Studies.
The annual in-person poll surveyed 1,200 people between the ages of 20 and 74 and has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
The figure represents the lowest number of people who believe reunification is necessary since the poll’s inception in 2007. The number of respondents who think it is not essential has been steadily increasing, from around 16 percent in 2018 to 29 percent this year.
Solid comments by all interviewed authorities. I strongly recommend reading this discussion prior to the upcoming Singapore summit. https://t.co/O7F9P734KO
"…These days, younger South Koreans in particular are far more likely to see the idea of reintegrating their prosperous capitalist democracy with the impoverished, totalitarian North as unrealistic and undesirable." https://t.co/2psntumP2P
North Korea has reaffirmed its commitment to ultimately reunite with South Korea, but not before rejecting any involvement by the U.S. and any other foreign powers on their shared East Asian peninsula.
The phrase “By Our Nation Itself” has frequently appeared in North Korea’s official media, attributing it to various bodies of government or its supporters. It was first conceived during a 2000 joint declaration in which the leaders of the two rival states “agreed to solve the question of the country’s reunification independently by the concerted efforts of the Korean nation responsible for it,” as quoted by state-run website Uriminzokkiri, which was named after the phrase. Most recently, it popped up in an article published Wednesday by the official Korean Central News Agency, which included it in the context of current negotiations between the two Koreas.
In remarks attributed to pro-North Korea site Jaju Sibo, described by The Diplomat as the successor to an online outlet shut down by South Korea’s strict anti-communist laws, an individual titled the honorary chairman of the Association for Supporting Prisoners of Conscience of the Family Movement for Realizing Democracy in South Korea “urged the authorities to adhere to the principle of By Our Nation Itself in mending the north-south relations.”
He also said “the authorities should abolish institutional and legal barriers such as repeal of the ‘Security Law,'” or National Security Act, which forbade South Koreans from expressing support for North Korea or communism in general. [Newsweek]
A ROK Drop favorite Dr. Andrei Lankov has an article published that explains why the middle class in North Korea will have a harder time transitioning to a unified Korean peninsula compared to their Eastern European counterparts:
In the last days of the communist system, people in most former-communist countries widely believed that the transition to democracy and collapse of the Leninist economy would in no time lead to material bounty, as well as the revival of the liberties once lost to communism.
This was the case at the end of the day – though not everywhere. And even where it was, the transition was far bumpier than the revolutionary enthusiasts had thought it would be. Many an Eastern European engineer, technician or accountant in the early 1990s suddenly discovered that their skills were hopelessly outdated and of little use in the new, emerging capitalist economy. In the former Soviet Union the transition was particularly harsh, and middle class enthusiasm quickly transitioned to disappointment and even desperation. In due time, it was a major reason behind Putin’s rise to power in Russia.
However, generally speaking, over the long run things turned out well for the Eastern European urban middle class, or at least a majority of them. After the first turbulent years, industry began to grow again, while engineers and technicians managed to update their skills, eventually learning how to fix and design modern equipment. Doctors, schoolteachers and functionaries also had time to acquire new skills and learn new rules. It helped that they had little internal competition: In any given country there was only one set of white-collar, skilled workforce; no significant group of outsiders could directly challenge their status. In a unified Korea, by contrast, things are liable to be rather different. [NK News]
You can read the rest at the link, but this is why I have always believed that if the Kim regime was to collapse the South Koreans would be wise to prevent people from South of the border from buying property or taking up jobs in North Korea. It is better that the North Koreans do things for themselves poorly than to have South Koreans move in and do things for them better. This will over the long term create a culture of dependency and eventually resentment in North Korea.
The best people in the South to help North Koreans with the transition would be North Korean defectors. That is also why I have believed that the ROK government should offer scholarships to defectors for skills that will be needed in a post-Kim regime North Korea. In return for the free education the defectors would agree to return to North Korea to help re-train their fellow countrymen when the country is reunified.
