Poll Shows that 11% of South Koreans Would Take Up Arms if North Korea Attacks
If anyone has wondered what most of the South Korean population would do if North Korea attacks, this poll gives some indication:
Four out of 10 Seoul residents would simply flee to another country if another war breaks out on the Korean peninsula, a poll suggests. Also, more than 60 percent of Seoul residents said they have no idea what the instructions are in the event of a war.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government surveyed 3,039 residents earlier this month and found that 36.2 percent would escape to a safer place, while 5.6 percent said they would leave Korea. Only 11.6 percent said they want to take up arms to defend the country, and the remainder would be willing to give the military some auxiliary support [Chosun Ilbo]
You can read more at the link.
It’s a silly question to pose in peacetime, especially in the ROK where they had/have mandatory military service. Most people in civilized countries are concerned about their everyday lives, not about a possible war. That’s what the military is for. In the ROK, even though a technical state of war still exists, they now have a great number of people who’ve never seen war in their country. North Korea has occasionally stepped over the line since the 1953 armistice, but for most people those violent events are simply something they’ve read about or seen on the news. Because of mandatory conscription, many Koreans serve their time in the military, and they’re able to compartmentalize their concern about war by understanding that the country has a large military that, along with U.S. forces, would knock North Korea back on its collective ass. The best thing the civilians could do in that situation would be to get out of the way and let the military do its job. If reserve and auxiliary forces are needed, they’ll be called up.
Additionally, the ROK of 30 years ago had fairly strict gun laws. I would assume that’s still the case. In the U.S., a lot of gung-ho civilians might relish the idea of being able to take up arms against an invading force, although an invasion on that scale would not be something that your typical basement arsenal would be able to counter very well. In the ROK, the only exposure most people get to firearms is in the service and/or in movies and TV. It’s not engrained in the culture in the ROK the way it is in the U.S.. And that’s okay.
And no matter what the polls show, history has proven repeatedly that people are capable of all kinds of things when their homeland is invaded. You don’t really know until it happens. Hopefully, in the case of the ROK, it never will again. (And God help NK if they’re ever stupid enough to try it.)