{"id":713,"date":"2026-05-28T15:36:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=713"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:36:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:36:23","slug":"thin-soccer-match-turnout-mirrors-south-koreans-dwindling-interest-in-north-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=713","title":{"rendered":"Thin soccer match turnout mirrors South Koreans\u2019 dwindling interest in North Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SEOUL, South Korea \u2014 Stepping into the coffee shop, Lee Tae-ha asked the server, \u201cAre you from Hamgyong Province?\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more From Mayor Pete to President Pete? Buttigieg leads 2028 Dem poll<\/a><\/p>\n

The server appeared startled at the mention of a province north of the Demilitarized Zone before sternly replying, \u201cIt\u2019s a secret!\u201d The small, tree-shadowed cafe in the courtyard of a church in central Seoul is run by North Korean defectors.<\/p>\n

Mr. Lee, 69, an entrepreneur in corporate communications who has done business in and with North Korea, is the product of a family divided by the 1950-53 Korean War.<\/p>\n

As someone who feels emotive bonds to those north of the frontier, he is increasingly unusual in millennial South Korea. Few citizens remember the peninsula before its 1948 division, and with divided family members dying out, youth interest is evaporating.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not informed about the benefits and values of unification, they don\u2019t care, they are not interested,\u201d Mr. Lee told The Washington Times. \u201cIt\u2019s a dying issue \u2014 a disappearing issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Southern indifference is mirrored in Northern policy. In March, Pyongyang revised its constitution, redefining the two Koreas as two separate states, not one divided nation.<\/p>\n

What average North Koreans think is unknowable. Constitutional change is the function of Pyongyang\u2019s elite; ordinary citizens\u2019 opinions are not surveyed.<\/p>\n

But they are in South Korea. The Korean Institute of National Unification, a think tank that has conducted the longest-running survey on the issue, has found falling support for unification since its first poll in 2014.<\/p>\n

In its 2025 survey, 51% of 1,000 respondents said \u201cunification is not necessary,\u201d 63.2% said it\u2019s unnecessary \u201cif the two Koreas can co-exist peacefully\u201d and 68.1% said they are \u201cuninterested\u201d in North Korea.<\/p>\n

Those findings came alive last week.<\/p>\n

For the first time in eight years, a North Korean team came South to play two matches in the Asian Football Confederation\u2019s Women\u2019s Club Championship.<\/p>\n

The North\u2019s Naegohyang beat the South\u2019s Suwon on May 20, then lifted the cup after beating Japan\u2019s Tokyo Verdey Beleza on May 23.<\/p>\n

In the absence of North Korean fans, Seoul\u2019s Ministry of Unification used about $200,000 to fund South Korean civic groups who welcomed North Koreans at the airport, then cheered them on in their match against Suwon.<\/p>\n

Sensing the poignancy of the occasion, media reported the warm feelings expressed by mostly aged spectators, who ignored torrential rain. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who seeks to unfreeze relations with North Korea, hailed the match on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cLose or win, we are the same team,\u201d insisted Lee Tae-ha, the entrepreneur. \u201cEveryone said, \u2019This game is our game, our team.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet only 5,763 seats were occupied in Suwon\u2019s 11,808-seat stadium.<\/p>\n

In the second match, with no financial support offered, the lack of organic interest was even more glaring: Despite blazing sunshine on a Saturday afternoon, only 2,670 spectators attended.<\/p>\n

The sparse turnout spoke volumes, given the location of both matches.<\/p>\n

Suwon, known for its semiconductor industry, forms the southern edge of the vast Incheon-Seoul-Suwon area \u2014 a megacity of 26 million citizens.<\/p>\n

Some criticized government support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s wrong for the minister of unification to set a cheering fee of 300 million won,\u201d said Lee Ae-ran, a North Korean defector-turned-restaurateur. \u201cI don\u2019t know if [Unification Minister Chung Dong-young] is a minister of South Korea or a spokesperson for [North Korean leader] Kim [Jong-un]!\u201d<\/p>\n

She sympathized with youth uninterest in the North.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost young people don\u2019t want reunification,\u201d said Ms. Lee, the defector. \u201cThey think that North Korea\u2019s backwardness and economic problems would be a burden.\u201d<\/p>\n

While unification costs would be colossal, the long-term upside could be seismic. In 2014, former conservative President Park Geun-hye called it \u201chitting the jackpot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 South Korea would reconnect to the contiguous Eurasian continent, enabling road, rail, pipeline and overflight access.<\/p>\n

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\u2022 The South\u2019s aging, 51 million people could be rejuvenated with the North\u2019s young, 26 million-strong population.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Southern conglomerates would have an entire infrastructure to rebuild and a new market to service.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Defense spending could be culled, and a reason for war in Northeast Asia would disappear.<\/p>\n

Yet even baby steps toward unification, first initiated in 1998, led nowhere. Current inter-Korean relations are frozen: There is zero trade, logistic, telecommunications or personnel exchange.<\/p>\n

Mr. Lee worked in public relations for the 1998-2003 Kim Dae-jung government that took those first baby steps under the \u201cSunshine Policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also conducted personal business in two inter-Korean projects \u2014 the Kaesong Industrial Complex and the Mount Kumgang Tourism Zone, which operated with North Korean labor and South Korean capital.<\/p>\n

He discovered that it was not just Northern practices that were barriers to business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was offered a job in North Korea \u2014 they understood PR as propaganda, and said it is a very important job! \u2014 and I was thinking of a travel agency: Unlike South Korea, it is undeveloped, and very beautiful,\u201d Mr. Lee said. \u201cI asked a friend in South Korean intelligence about it, and he said, \u2019Don\u2019t do it! Your South Korean business will be ruined.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While operating at Kaesong, Mr. Lee won the trust of North Korean officials who told him he had three half-brothers in the North. All were children of his father\u2019s former wife. She had remarried after he was trapped in the South during the Korean War; he never returned to the North.<\/p>\n

Even so, Mr. Lee was unable to make contact with his Northern family. Kumgang and Kaesong were both shuttered amid cross-border tensions. He blames policy discontinuity between Seoul administrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Korea is always changing, the conservative and progressive positions are always different,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the North Korean leader is always same guy. He must be fed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Lee Ae-ran, the defector, reckons Pyongyang\u2019s recent constitutional shift is the simple recognition of reality: North Korea cannot unify with the richer, stronger, bigger, freer South.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorth Korea said it won\u2019t unify, but that is because it can\u2019t, with their leadership dictatorship and socialist system,\u201d Ms. Lee said. \u201cI don\u2019t think unification can be realized just by dialogue with North Korea, or by inter-Korean exchanges.\u201d<\/p>\n

That leaves extreme circumstances \u2014 such as a Northern regime implosion, or war. The first is unlikely, the second could be apocalyptic.<\/p>\n

The receding prospects for unification depress Mr. Lee.<\/p>\n

The Odaesan Observatory, which offers binocular views across the Yellow Sea into North Korea, is just an hour\u2019s drive from his home. From there, he can view a mountain close to his father\u2019s ancestral village.<\/p>\n

His hillside villa in northwest Seoul lies within walking distance of the Committee for the Five Northern Provinces. Established in 1949, that is a de jure South Korean governance body for the North. Its cluster of buildings, set in a scenic, low-rise district, is frequently passed by hikers on weekends, but gets little foot traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in there many times as I wanted to donate,\u201d Mr. Lee said. \u201cBut I found they do nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before all North-South ties were severed, his last cross-frontier project was an eco-sanctuary for cranes. For Koreans, the birds are poignant symbols of unity.<\/p>\n

\u201cCranes are on screens, on paintings, even on the 500-won coin: They represent harmony, as they live in couples,\u201d Mr. Lee said. \u201cThis is always on my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Coming soon to a sky near you: Electric planes and autonomous flight<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Few South Koerans remember the peninsula before its 1948 division, and with divided family members dying out, youth interest is evaporating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\nThin soccer match turnout mirrors South Koreans\u2019 dwindling interest in North Korea - Home Buyer Relocation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/homebuyerrelocation.com\/?p=713\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thin soccer match turnout mirrors South Koreans\u2019 dwindling interest in North Korea - 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