Public sentiment around North Korea-South Korea tensions shows a complex mix of skepticism, anxiety, nostalgia, and humor. Many commenters express a resigned belief that war is unlikely, viewing the situation as more of a petty conflict than a serious threat. There is a strong desire for peace and family reunification, alongside frustration with North Korea's leadership and the geopolitical complexities involving external influences. Nostalgia for family connections and historical conflicts complicates the views, indicating both a yearning for resolution and skepticism about genuine progress.

North Korea

South Korea

United States

China

No, in fact they will never go to war, one look at the map will tell you why.

[deleted]

I hope not

Cause if war happens it would be bad

Violence is bad

So war would be bad

My_Love_Kanye

Never.  North Korea will loses. North Korea army just to fool their own ppl.

premierfong

No.

The relationship between South Korea and North Korea can be summarized to one phrase: nothing ever happens.

  
There may be skirmishes here and there, but both sides have too much to lose from a war. So nothing ever happens.

Bitter-Goat-8773

A limited military conflict might occur, but a full-scale war is unlikely.  
Such localized clashes are actually desired by the hardliners—mainly from conservative parties—on both sides of the Korean Peninsula.  
The reason is that these situations tend to benefit their political interests.  
This is also evident in the recent incident involving Yoon Suk-yeol, who allegedly provoked internal unrest and external conflict by sending drones to Pyongyang.

PralineFit2356

GDAWG37

North Korea is no match for South Korea in every measure. They also need Chinese and Russian backing. They don't want anything to do with inevitable US military intervention. 
South Korea has too much to lose. 
So Koreas just stay stand off ish. 

Bonus: China needs North Korea to stay as a buffer zone. China doesn't want US influence or stronger united Korea right on the border.

InternationalPut4093

Life-Zone-3014

If war begin, I'll escape from this dog country asap.

Hwan_Guk

Kim knows he has all to lose if a war happens

ijtlii

“”Seoul resumed loudspeaker broadcasts in June 2024 after Pyongyang sent [nearly a thousand rubbish-filled balloons](https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/01/seoul-warns-public-of-more-balloons-being-sent-from-north-korea) across the border in the space of a few weeks.””

CharlieKonR

I wonder if South Korea is reconsidering its stance with NK in light of the current belligerence of the US, its traditional military ally.

As a South Korean, from my point of view, this looks like a result of reallocating defence spending or an outright cut. Since the newly elected president is playing QE with the government budget, he's kinda cutting some spending here and there and is trying to pass legislation increasing taxes on companies to make ends meet. This is due to the economy in full stagnation mode btw. Such a passionate populist this guy.

S1gorJabjong

Vusstar

Deescalstion can only be a good thing, won’t change anything in N. Korea until they stop being a pariah state

Informal_Treat4634

I wrote a report on how the south korean city of 고성 suffered dued to  kumgang closing. Many people living there were excited to have there city be the cross point to north korea and now there's not much tourists there.

Reasonable_Fold6492

Stuff like this is even more of a tragedy if you consider the long term loss to the relationship and cultural exchange of both countries, when these programmes are suspended. 

  
Presuming this death was at least somewhat intentional or allowed to happen I dearly would love to begin to understand the mindset of the NK government given the multitude of similar incidents, most recently with the American Otto Warmbier. How do these tragic incidents continue to happen, at a huge loss both financially and in international standing.

Hamish909

[This](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna25634009) is an NBC news article covering the incident.

Fun-Discount-4U

\&gt;ignoring warnings and trying to flee

That sounds like an oxymoron

BringOutTheImp

HelenEk7

If NK received $40 million on 2 million tourists, they were probably losing money by the time they staffed the place. 

All because one rando woman thought she didn’t have to listen to instructions. 

Meanwhile, in the US when Chinese “tourists” “accidentally” wander into restricted military zones, they are also immediately labeled as potential spies and dealt with accordingly. 

Who knows what this woman was really up to. Testing the waters to see if a person could slip away from the crowd without anyone noticing? Meeting someone for some transfer of information? Trying to see how they would react to someone giving them the slip, so the next person will have an idea of what to expect? Leaving some sort of communications device to be retrieved? 

If she was testing their marksmanship, she found out it was fairly good. 

North Korea had legitimate concerns, but over reacted. They should have simply jailed her. 

But the number of spies South Korea has managed to get into the North made this whole tourist scheme a shady operation from many security vantage points.

Aware-Influence-8622

I think China sees DPRK as their crazy son in law that is capable of taking the keys and smashing the car into some important neighbors house. And China knows they might be called upon to get him under control and maybe pay some of the damages…
Their biggest fear is son in law will do something catastrophic enough to cause his giant extended family to cross the river and want to live with China…

wood1492

I would not call it good, the DPRK is a buffer that it useful and tolerated because is serves a purpose.

lineholder93

China and North Korea not friends and don’t have good relationship at the moment. They are situational allies. 
North Korea fully depends on China funding currently (a little bit less now).  And China needs DPRK as a buffer zone to keep America a little bit further from its borders.
It’s a toxic alliance, not good relationship.

Also North Korea doesn’t have food issues currently.
They did back in 90s due their own poor decisions and political mistakes + weather conditions. But not anymore.

AccomplishedTest9409

North Korea does not want help. They close their borders and rarely allow Chinese trains in. North Korea could fully embrace China but they choose to stick to self reliance.

Fuzzy_Category_1882

China and NK do not have a really good relation at the moment because China is annoyed by the fact that NK sent it's troops to Ukraine. Also, NK prefers self reliance and does not really want to trade with other countries so that explains alot.

Gamepetrol2011

In 2022, China, alongside Russia, vetoed a U.S.-led resolution that sought to impose additional sanctions on North Korea after a series of ballistic missile launches. More recently, Xi and Putin called for an end to sanctions and military pressure against North Korea. 

China is just playing both sides, as they help North Korea circumvent international sanctions while simultaneously voting in support of U.N. sanctions.

Successful_Expert273

dubbelo8

north korea is a pain in the ass for china.
china wants to be friends with everybody and being too close to nk makes china look bad

obssesedparanoid

They do not have the best relationship. Chinas foreign policy and relationships with a  depends on how useful they are to them.

China has associates and partners, not allies

Amockdfw89

It's not really a "good relationship" they essentially tolerate eachother for both of their national security sakes, you can't view them as friends because they aren't, NK needs China for protection and what little supplies they can siphon from them and China needs NK as a strategic asset in terms of border security, but let's say NK goes straight up rogue and ACTUALLY instigated hostilities with the US and just starts dropping bombs on their own desire, China would almost certainly drop any and all support because they aren't worth the hassle to get into a full blown war they started

LordGlizzard

North Korea and China are only close in the sense that if North Korea was standing on one end of a field china might be 40m away and Russia is at 65m everyone else is spread out from 80m to 100m. China isn't really that close and yet they are the closest.

boanerges57

Don’t North Koreans still never eat meat? Like if they are lucky a couple times a year?

I think they are still in a food crisis but millions better than it use to be in the 80/90s

rigormortis4

there are plenty cooperations between China and NK, just Google or visit Chinese embassy website. That  being said, most Chinese I know don't see NK as friend, rather than a usuful buffer zone against US forces. Some even resent NK for dragging China into the Korea war and triggering US intervention on Taiwan.

skywalker326

China supports NK with what they aske for:

Military tech so NK can be a bufferzone. And they get food from china and always will

Mammoth_Egg8784

I don’t think they were ever really allies or friends, merely members of the same global block countries who happened to be next door to one another. 

Looking at their current status, it’s a holdover from years of having a similar alignment.

Their food issues mainly come from the US embargo that basically prohibits countries from sending aid or trading with them at all

Anonymous-Josh

No technology can grow crop out of nothing. You need fertilizers and other stuff that are expansive.

No-Satisfaction-275

They are allies of convenience but not friends. The Chinese look down on North Koreans and China isn't too happy about how Kim Jung Un is handling North Korea and actually tried to get him removed once but failed. If China had their way, they would change the Kim Regime for someone more in line with China but they prefer the Kim Regime over a united Korea controlled by the South for obvious reasons.

BigMoney69x

North Korea has rejected South Korea's claims of dismantling propaganda loudspeakers along the border, indicating ongoing hostilities between the nations.

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