The 'threat' of invasion from the North was never real. It was and is manufactured to keep the Occupied South subject to draconian laws and their comprador enforcers.
Thanks to the South's National Security Law, it is illegal to be a communist or even remotely sympathetic to North Korea. It is illegal in most cases to criticize the government. It is illegal to voice support for some politicians. In some cases these offenses can get you the death penalty.
South Korea's labor law lets companies force employees work 21.5 hours per day. That's 21.5 hours.
43.8% of South Korea’s elderly live in poverty, triple the OECD average rate of 14.8%. Pension or other retirement plan is scarce, and the elderly must continue perform subsistence-level labor late into their lives, facing abuse and awful work conditions.
Threat = capabilities + Intention. One can estimate to various levels of accuracy. The estimate by definition is imprecise but can be worked with. Intention is very difficult to measure with any degree of satisfactory accuracy though it's worth estimating. Another variable is of course Geography. The point is threat perception always in the eye of the beholder.
The 'threat' of invasion from the North was never real. It was and is manufactured to keep the Occupied South subject to draconian laws and their comprador enforcers.
Thanks to the South's National Security Law, it is illegal to be a communist or even remotely sympathetic to North Korea. It is illegal in most cases to criticize the government. It is illegal to voice support for some politicians. In some cases these offenses can get you the death penalty.
South Korea's labor law lets companies force employees work 21.5 hours per day. That's 21.5 hours.
43.8% of South Korea’s elderly live in poverty, triple the OECD average rate of 14.8%. Pension or other retirement plan is scarce, and the elderly must continue perform subsistence-level labor late into their lives, facing abuse and awful work conditions.
Life for the lower 50% is better in the North.
Threat = capabilities + Intention. One can estimate to various levels of accuracy. The estimate by definition is imprecise but can be worked with. Intention is very difficult to measure with any degree of satisfactory accuracy though it's worth estimating. Another variable is of course Geography. The point is threat perception always in the eye of the beholder.