"The No. 1 Threatening Country is North Korea, No. 2 is..." Koreans Picked 'This Country'

[Financial News] 9 out of 10 Koreans consider the United States as the most important ally, while they think of North Korea and China as the biggest threats, according to a survey result.

The US polling agency Pew Research Center conducted a survey on the perception of important allies and threatening countries among citizens of 25 major countries, and released the results on the 8th (local time). Among the Korean respondents, 89% said the United States is South Korea's most important ally.

Koreans' tendency to value the US is overwhelmingly clear compared to other surveyed countries, along with Israel and Japan. In the same survey, 95% of Israelis and 78% of Japanese said the US is the most important ally. Following Japan were Canada (55%), the UK (51%), and Poland (43%), with some differences from the response rates of the previous three countries.

The timing issue may have had an impact. The survey targeting South Korea was conducted between February 28 and March 29, between the inauguration of US President Donald Trump and the announcement of the US government's 25% reciprocal tariff on South Korea, so the impact of the reciprocal tariff may not have been reflected.

In the question about the biggest threat, 40% of Koreans named North Korea, while 33% said China. Only 13% and 1% respectively said the US and Russia. In Japan, 53% named China as the biggest threat, revealing strong anti-China sentiment.

Canadians, who suffered humiliation when President Donald Trump said Canada should become "the 51st state of the US," had the highest rate of saying the US is the most important ally, but also the highest rate of saying the US is the biggest threat (59%).

Mexicans, who are in conflict with the US over border and tariff issues, had a rate of 68% saying the US is the most threatening country. The percentage of Mexicans who said the US is the most important ally was 37%.

US political media Politico evaluated the survey on the 8th, saying, "Not to mention Russia, North Korea, Iran, now the majority of Canadians see the neighboring US as their biggest threat," highlighting the noticeable change in perception of the US during the Trump era.

In the case of European countries, the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine led to a higher rate of saying Russia is the biggest threat compared to other countries. 81% of Polish respondents said Russia is the biggest threat, and Sweden (77%) and Germany (59%) also had strong negative perceptions of Russia.

Meanwhile, this survey was conducted on 28,033 people from 25 major countries, including the US, from January 8 to April 26. The Korean survey was conducted through telephone interviews with 1,042 adults aged 18 and over.
bng@fnnews.com Kim Hee-sun Reporter