A recent poll commissioned by the unification ministry showed that a majority of South Koreans consider North Korea a separate state and agree that peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula is more important than reunification.

Sixty-four-point-six percent of respondents to a Gallup Korea survey of one-thousand-five adults conducted between December 2 and 8 believe North Korea to be an independent state.

Seventy-nine-point-four percent believe the two Koreas' peaceful coexistence is more critical than reunification, though 62 percent said reunification is necessary.

Sixty-nine-point-nine percent supported a peaceful two-state relationship oriented toward reunification.

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young had stated in a briefing the previous day that he was confident that an overwhelming majority of the public supports peaceful relations.

The minister said that it would be a political misinterpretation to call such a relationship the abandonment of reunification.

The survey had a 95 percent confidence level with a margin of error of plus or minus three-point-one percentage points.