Description
The prospect of reunification between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) continues to shape South Korea’s political discourse, national identity, and security strategy. Although unification remains a constitutional aspira-tion, its perceived desirability and feasibility have shifted across generations amid persistent military threats, alliance politics, and regional competition. This study employs latent class analysis (LCA) to identify unobserved subgroups within South Korean society defined by shared patterns of identity, threat perception, and policy preference. Using data from the Unification Perception Survey (2007–2024), it examines how these latent structures evolve over time and across generations. The analysis uncovers complex trade-offs among security concerns, economic burdens, and moral-ethnic obligations. Findings indicate a declining belief in unification as an “essential” goal and rising support for peaceful coexistence or deterrence-based stability, particularly among younger cohorts. The study contributes to understanding South Korea’s evolving national identity and security politics by (1) concep-tualizing identity as a multidimensional, security-embedded construct; (2) linking genera-tional socialization to changing threat perceptions; and (3) showing how internal identity diversity constrains and enables foreign policy choices. Together, the findings illuminate how identity and security interact in shaping South Korea’s unification discourse.
