College Students' Sense of Korean National Security : Verifying Its Factors and Levels
Tong Soo Lee, Sang Jo Jeon · Korean Journal of Social Science · 2014
This study defines the factors that affect the sense of national security amongst college students and verifies how and how much those factors influence the students’ sense of national security. The factors that affect the sense of national security were organized in seven categories: the national system, social stability, national defense capability, pride in society and culture, cyber threats, international relations, and threats from North Korea.BR Those categories above except wariness of cyber threats appeared to be meaningful in affecting the students’ sense of national security. And external threats such as provocations of North Korea are directly related to and appear to have the greatest impact on national security. There were found to be meaningful differences in perception of national security by gender, grade, region of birth, income level, fulfillment of military duty, education of national security and history.BR There are various potential measures that can be applied to improve college students’ sense of national security. First and foremost, students must become clearly aware of North Korean threats and the national security environment. In order to achieve such ideal, national security issues should be publicized in a more active manner, and simultaneously develope educational programs to provide proper information to students. It is also necessary for students to have pride and faith in ou nation’s identity and political ideals. Such faithful attitude can be nurtured through defense capability and Korea-US alliance. As a result, it is significant for the state to win trust and support from its’ citizens to fuel the growth of defense capability. Finally, the importance of cooperation with surrounding nations should not be overlooked.