POHANG, South Korea (AP) 鈥 The Associated Press spoke with dozens of South Koreans for a detailed look at the nation's stark division in views about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's aggressive pursuit of nuclear-tipped missiles targeting the South and its major ally and protector, the United States.
How South Korea sees its northern rival is a famously complicated subject, split along deep societal fault lines: age, wealth, politics, status, history, sex.
The result is that some see little danger in North Korea's threatening rhetoric, weapons tests and aggressive military maneuvers 鈥 and some are stocking bunkers with goods meant to get them through a nuclear strike.
Here are some key takeaways from the of its , North Korea.
North Korea is fast becoming a nuclear power
The exact details of the are difficult for outsiders to determine.
But a consensus has formed that the country, one of the world's poorest, is making steady 鈥 occasionally dramatic 鈥 progress in its drive for an arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles. That progress was underlined Thursday when just days after leader Kim Jong Un vowed to make his .
The end of the three-year Korean War in 1953 resulted in an uneasy cease-fire, which means that the Korean Peninsula, separated by the world鈥檚 most heavily armed border, is technically still at war. Those tensions are palpable in South Korea, where .
North Korea has been working for decades, but it started in earnest in the 1990s. Its regular missile and nuclear tests are meant to build an arsenal that can accurately hit targets on the American mainland. There are still technical issues Pyongyang must master, but the development of such weapons may only be a matter of time.
Experts estimate that Pyongyang has as many as 60 warheads.
Some South Koreans are very worried
鈥淜im Jong Un might really use a nuke,鈥 Kim Jaehyun, a 22-year-old undergraduate law student, told AP. 鈥淣orth Korea could really attack us out of the blue.鈥
Kim Jaehyun stockpiles a bulletproof vest and other military gear in the event of a war. He also regularly attends North Korea security seminars and reads articles on war scenarios.
鈥淭here needs to be at least one person like me who can raise how dangerous鈥 North Korea is, Kim said. 鈥淧eople just take the looming threats too lightly. It鈥檚 like they see the knife coming closer to them but never think the knife could stab them.鈥
Anxiety in South Korea is partly linked to former U.S. President Donald Trump, who . This, along with the North鈥檚 rapid nuclear progress, has about whether Washington would fulfill its oft-stated pledge to respond with its own nuclear weapons if the North attacked South Korea.
Shin Nari can quickly quantify her worry about nuclear war.
鈥淣umber-wise, from 1 to 10, I would say 8. 鈥 I take it very seriously,鈥 said Shin, 34, a master鈥檚 student at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. She says a war could happen anytime. 鈥淚n a few seconds, we could just blow up here.鈥
On the outskirts of Seoul, Jung Myungja, 73, was so worried about a nuclear attack that she commissioned the building of a bunker, about the size of a medium-sized walk-in closet, below the courtyard of her house.
鈥淵ou never know what the future holds,鈥 Jung said. 鈥淭hese days you get local news and (expert) opinions that say there is likely to be another war in this country. I personally think that can really happen again.鈥
Two longtime North Korea experts 鈥 Robert Carlin and Siegfried Hecker, both of whom have regularly visited the North 鈥 argued at the beginning of 2024 that Kim Jong Un had 鈥渕ade a strategic decision to go to war,鈥 creating a situation on the Korean Peninsula that鈥檚 鈥渕ore dangerous than it has been at any time since early June 1950.鈥
Others, not so much
鈥淚f a fish lives in water, it doesn鈥檛 think about the water.鈥
That's how the Rev. Chung Joon-hee, a pastor at Youngnak Presbyterian Church in Seoul, one of South Korea鈥檚 biggest and most influential churches, explains why many South Koreans ignore the constant North Korean threat.
鈥淭his is our world,鈥 he said. 鈥淭here is nowhere to hide or go. 鈥 If there is a provocation or anything that happens, we have to accept that as context in our life.鈥
Many of the people in South Korea who don鈥檛 worry tend to have an abiding faith in Washington鈥檚 rhetoric about its 鈥 and the nearly 30,000 American troops stationed in the South as a deterrent.
Many in South Korea, regardless of age or economic background, also discount the nuclear threat as hollow because of a simple truth: Aside from occasional deadly skirmishes, the North hasn鈥檛 backed up its regular threats to use its weapons in a full-scale attack on the South.
鈥淚 hope he won鈥檛 get injured,鈥 said Yeon Soo Lee, 55, a business owner from Gangneung, said of his son who is becoming a third-generation marine. 鈥淏ut I have no concern that he will be involved in a will happen these days.鈥
Kwon Young-il, a 28-year-old car salesperson who completed his active military duty in 2021 and is now in the reserves, says almost all the experienced soldiers he knows don鈥檛 think war is coming. That includes him.
What does he worry about? 鈥淲hether I should get a lunch box provided by the army or buy my own lunch at the post exchange,鈥 he said of his reserve training. 鈥淣one of my friends seriously think I will have to fight against North Korea.鈥
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