Stream Classics to Latest K-Movies & Shows at OnDemandKorea

Global Survey Suggests Far Fewer Koreans Willing to Fight

Only 42 percent of Koreans are willing to fight if a war breaks out, according to a WIN/Gallup survey in 64 countries. The average percentage of the 64 countries was 61 percent.

Advertisement

Yet in a similar survey of 1,000 people by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs in November, whopping 72.1 percent of respondents said they would be willing to fight.

The discrepancy is startling and suggests deep flaws in methodology.

WIN/Gallup polled 62,398 people over 18 years in 64 countries from September to December 2014. The Korean sample was 1,500.

Some 626 or 42 percent of Koreans said they are willing to fight, substantially trailing the 752 or 50 percent who categorically said they would not. Eight percent were undecided. The yes-figure breaks down into fifty-six percent of men and 27 percent of women.

Morocco and Fiji were the most gung-ho with 94 percent, followed by Pakistan (89 percent), Vietnam (89 percent), Bangladesh (86 percent), Azerbaijan (85 percent), Papua New Guinea (84 percent), and Afghanistan (76 percent).

In the U.S. 44 percent said they would fight for their country, another startlingly low figure in a supposedly belligerent and patriotic nation, compared to 71 percent in China. Japan had the lowest figure with 11 percent.

❎ Try Ad-free