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Jan. 21 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would not impose new tariffs on eight countries in Europe because they opposed his plan to annex Greenland.

Trump had said Saturday he would add 1% to 25% tariffs on those countries unless they allowed him to take the Danish territory.

“Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st,” he said.

Just before his announcement, the European Union’s parliament paused a vote on the trade deal that Trump negotiated with the bloc last summer. EU leaders were planning an emergency summit Thursday to work on a response to the threats.

Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday that he will not use force to annex Greenland but warned that if he did, the United States could not be stopped.

Trump’s comments on his ongoing pursuit of acquiring Greenland did not completely rule out escalation, though he referred to Iceland instead of Greenland at several points.

“We never asked for anything and we never got anything,” Trump said. “We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that.”

In Trump’s speech and responses during a Q&A with WEF President Borge Brende, he said inflation has been “defeated,” alleged protesters in Minnesota are “paid agitators” and suggested Europe is “not heading in the right direction.”

“People are doing very well,” Trump said. “They’re very happy with me.”

The president referred to the United States as the “economic engine” that all of Europe follows either up or down.

“In recent decades, it became the conventional wisdom in Washington and European capitals that the only way to grow a modern Western economy was through ever-increasing government spending, unchecked mass migration and endless foreign imports,” Trump said. “The consensus was that so-called dirty jobs and heavy industry should be sent elsewhere. That affordable energy should be replaced by the green new scam and that countries could be propped up by importing new and entirely different populations from far-away lands.”

Minnesota and immigration were a particular focus of Trump on Wednesday. He referred to Somalis, which Minnesota has the largest population of in the United States, as “low IQ people.” He used this as an example of the harm he believes immigration brings.

“The situation in Minnesota reminds us that the West cannot mass import foreign cultures,” he said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg before heading to Davos herself, calling Trump’s threat of tariffs “simply wrong” because Europe agreed with the United States on the need to ensure the security of the Arctic.

Von der Leyen said that while Europe preferred to talk out differences, it was “fully prepared to act, if necessary, with unity, urgency and determination,” adding that leaders of EU nations would meet in Brussels to discuss their response at an emergency session of the European Council on Thursday.

Her comments came as the European Parliament was set to announce Wednesday that it was pausing ratification of a tariffs and trade deal with the United States inked in July because it was unlikely to pass.

Without the deal, $109 billion of U.S. exports to the EU will be subject to tariffs starting Feb. 7.

French President Emmanuel Macron told the forum in Davos on Tuesday that the EU must not fall prey to “the law of the strongest” and that it should hold out against what he said was a new type of colonialism, citing lopsided U.S. trade deals and an “endless accumulation” of new tariffs that become even less acceptable when used as leverage to alter borders.

Macron also levelled similar accusations at China, saying its “massive excess capacity and distortive practices threaten to overwhelm entire industrial and commercial sectors.”

“We prefer respect to bullies, we prefer science to conspiracies, and we prefer the rule of law to brutality,” said Macron, who is among those advocating deployment of a so-called “trade bazooka” that was created with China in mind when it was floated in 2023.

A deterrent against bids by global powers to strongarm the EU or member nations into policy shifts, the Anti-Coercion Instrument allows Europe to respond with counter-tariffs, restrict access to the Single Market, block bids for EU contracts, as well as target intellectual property rights and investment.

German officials told Politico that Berlin would ask the European Commission to look at the ACI option when EU leaders meet Thursday in Brussels, however, the outcome was being seen as dependent on what Trump says in his address Wednesday and the result of talks on the sidelines of the forum.

Speaking before departing Washington at a news conference to mark his first year in office, Trump initially ramped up his rhetoric, warning he was prepared to do whatever it took to acquire Greenland, before switching to diplomacy mode, saying he was confident he would be able to find a solution acceptable to both sides.

“I think something’s going to happen that’s going to be very good for everybody. … I think that we will work something out where NATO is going to be very happy and where we’re going to be very happy. But we need it for security purposes, we need it for national security and even world security. It’s very important,” Trump said.

NUUK, Greenland — President Trump retreated Wednesday from his most serious threats toward Denmark, easing transatlantic tensions and lifting Wall Street after rejecting the prospect he would use military force to annex Greenland, a Danish territory and the world’s largest island.

Instead, the United States struck a “framework” agreement in talks with NATO’s secretary general regarding the future of Greenland, “and in fact, the whole Arctic region,” Trump wrote on social media. He did not immediately provide details on the contents of the plan.

The whiplash of developments followed weeks of escalating threats from the president to control Greenland by any means necessary — including by force, if left with no other choice.

Now, “the military’s not on the table,” Trump told reporters at the economic forum in Switzerland, acknowledging sighs of relief throughout the room.

“I don’t think it will be necessary,” he said. “I really don’t. I think people are going to use better judgment.”

It was a turn of events that came as welcome news in Nuuk, where signs hang in storefronts and kitchen windows rejecting American imperialism.

“It’s difficult to say what are negotiating tactics, and what the foundation is for him saying all of this,” said Finn Meinel, an attorney born and raised in the Greenlandic capital. “It could be that joint pressure from the EU and NATO countries has made an impact, as well as the economic numbers in the states. Maybe that has had an influence.”

President Trump speaks during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.

(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

In his speech at Davos, Trump took note of the market turmoil his threats against Greenland had caused entering the conference. Announcing the agreement framework on social media Wednesday, he said he would pause punitive tariffs planned against longstanding European allies that had refused to support his demands.

Prominent world leaders — including from Canada, France and the United Kingdom, among Washington’s closest allies — had warned earlier this week that Trump’s militant threats against a fellow NATO member were ushering in a new era of global order accommodating a less reliable United States.

For years, Trump has called for U.S. ownership over Greenland due to its strategic position in the Arctic Circle, where ice melting due to climate change is making way for a new era of competition with Russia and China. An Arctic conflict, the president says, will require a robust U.S. presence there.

While the president rejects climate change and its perils as a hoax, he has embraced the opportunities that may come with the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet, the world’s largest after Antarctica, including the opening of new shipping lanes and defense positions.

The United States already enjoys broad freedom to deploy any defense assets it sees fit across the island, raising questions in Europe over Trump’s fixation on outright sovereignty over the land.

“We want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won’t give it. We’ve never asked for anything else,” Trump said, addressing members of the NATO alliance.

“I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force,” Trump said. But Europe still has a choice. “You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative,” he continued, “or you can say no, and we will remember.”

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The day before Trump’s speech, allies warned about a “rupture” in a global order in which the United States could be relied upon as a force of good. Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, in a speech Tuesday characterized Trump’s push to acquire Greenland as an example of why “the old order is not coming back.”

Trump apparently took note of Carney’s remarks, and told the crowd on Wednesday that Canada “should be grateful.”

“But they are not,” Trump said. “Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

The president struck a similar tone with his demands for Greenland, repeatedly characterizing the United States as a “great power” compared with Denmark in its ability to protect the Arctic territory. At one point, he cited the American military’s role in World War II to justify his demands, telling the eastern Swiss audience that, “without us, you’d all be speaking German, or a little Japanese perhaps.”

It was a slight carried forward by the president’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, who derided Copenhagen for its decision to divest from U.S. treasuries. “Denmark’s investment in U.S. treasury bonds like Denmark itself is irrelevant,” the secretary said.

In several instances, Trump framed the transatlantic alliance as one that benefits other countries more than the United States.

“We will be with NATO 100%, but I’m not sure they will be there for us,” Trump said. But NATO Secretary Gen. Mark Rutte responded to the concern in their meeting, noting that the alliance’s Article 5 commitment to joint defense has only been invoked once — by the United States, after the September 11th attacks. “Let me tell you: they will,” Rutte said.

But Trump expanded on his thinking over Greenland in his speech to the summit, describing his fixation on Greenland as “psychological,” and questioning why the United States would come to the island’s defense if its only investment was a licensing agreement.

“There’s no sign of Denmark there. And I say that with great respect for Denmark, whose people I love, whose leaders are very good,” Trump said. “It’s the United States alone that can protect this giant, massive land – this giant piece of ice – develop it, and improve it, and make it so that it’s good for Europe, and safe for Europe, and good for us.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom was among the people in the audience reacting to Trump’s remarks in real time. The president’s speech, he told CNN afterward, was “remarkably boring” and “remarkably insignificant.”

“He was never going invade Greenland. It was never real,” Newsom said. “That was always a fake.”

Wilner reported from Nuuk, Ceballos from Washington, D.C.

Jan. 15 (UPI) — U.S. philanthropist Gilbert Butler has emerged as a major private donor shaping conservation policy in Latin America by financing the purchase and then donating six islands in Uruguay and Argentina to create the first binational park on the Uruguay River.

Butler donated the islands of Chala, Inga and Pinguino to the Uruguayan state. The islands lie on the river in Rio Negro department, an administrative division similar to a county.

Together, the three islands cover 1,270 acres and were incorporated into Uruguay’s National System of Protected Areas, known by its Spanish acronym SNAP, according to statements from the Presidency of Uruguay and the Ministry of Environment.

Uruguayan authorities described the donation as unprecedented, marking the first time the country has added land to SNAP through a direct donation of property purchased by a private person for conservation purposes.

“Nothing like this has been seen for decades,” President Yamandu Orsi said Thursday during the ceremony accepting the islands.

According to Uruguayan officials, at least two of the islands include basic public-use infrastructure, such as docks, shelters and restrooms designed for low-impact ecotourism and environmental education.

The project aims to promote restorative economies and strengthen local communities under a model based on conservation and ecological connectivity.

The Uruguay initiative is linked to a project already underway in Argentina. On the Argentine side of the river, Butler previously acquired the islands of Dolores, San Genaro and Campichuelo in Entre Rios province. Together they span about 6,425 acres and are slated to be donated to creates a provincial nature park.

Provincial authorities plan to add about 3,459 acres of public land to that core area, bringing the total protected surface to about 9,884 acres. All six islands are part of the same cross-border conservation scheme.

In a speech, Butler said his goal is to create a binational park, contending that using the land solely for eucalyptus and soybean plantations “is an ecological disaster.”

The six islands make up the project known as Green Islands and Channels of the Uruguay River, which seeks to establish a continuous transboundary ecological corridor along one of the Southern Cone’s most important freshwater basins.

The initiative focuses on protecting wetlands, riverine biodiversity and ecological connectivity, while supporting sustainable tourism.

The donation has reopened public debate in Uruguay over the ownership of river islands.

Under current regulations and legal analyses reported locally, river islands are registered parcels that may be publicly or privately owned regardless of the owner’s nationality and may be incorporated into the protected areas system even if they were previously private.

Records and local media reports show the donated islands had been privately owned since the 1990s after being transferred as part of the settlement of a commercial debt.

Previous attempts at productive use failed because of recurring floods linked to the river’s hydrological cycle.

Local authorities in Rio Negro and Entre Rios said the binational project presents coordination challenges, but agreed it could position the Uruguay River region as a regional example for shared environmental conservation.

Nearly 15,000 nurses walked off their jobs at major New York City hospitals on Monday in one of the largest health care strikes in decades. They are demanding higher pay, safer staffing levels and better security measures at hospitals. Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited the nurses on a picket line.

The Iranian army says it would safeguard strategic infrastructure and public property as it urged the Iranians to thwart “the enemy’s plots”, after United States President Donald Trump issued a new warning to Iran’s leaders over the escalating antigovernment protests.

In a statement published by semi-official news sites, the military on Saturday accused Israel and “hostile terrorist groups” of seeking to “undermine the country’s public security”, as Tehran stepped up efforts to ‍quell the country’s biggest protests in years over the cost of living, which have left dozens dead.

“The Army, under the command of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, together with other armed forces, in addition to monitoring enemy movements in the region, will resolutely protect and safeguard national interests, the country’s strategic infrastructure, and public property,” the military said.

Iran’s ‍elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – which operates separately from the army – also warned ⁠on Saturday that ​safeguarding ‍the 1979 revolution’s ‍achievements and the ⁠country’s security was a “red line”, ​state ‌TV reported.

Earlier on Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio once again expressed Washington’s support for the people of Iran after Iranian authorities blacked out the internet, as they sought to curb deadly protests.

“The United States supports the brave people of Iran,” Rubio posted on X.

The post came hours after Trump issued a new warning to Iran’s leaders, saying, “You better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.”

Trump said it looked like Iran’s leaders were “in big trouble” and repeated an earlier threat of military attacks if peaceful protesters were killed. “It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago,” he said.

Protests have taken place across Iran since January 3, in a movement prompted by anger over the rising cost of living, with growing calls for the end of the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, which removed the pro-Western shah ruler.

The unrest continued overnight on Saturday, with state media blaming “rioters” for setting a municipal building on fire in Karaj, west of Tehran, the Reuters news agency reported.

Press TV broadcast footage of funerals of members of the security forces it said were killed in protests in the cities of Shiraz, Qom and Hamedan, Reuters said. Videos published by Persian-language television channels based outside Iran showed large numbers of people taking part in new protests in the eastern city of Mashhad and Tabriz in the north.

In his first comments on the escalating protests, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called the demonstrators “vandals” and “saboteurs”.

In a speech broadcast on Press TV, Khamenei said Trump’s hands “are stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians”, in apparent reference to Israel’s attacks on Iran in June, which the US supported and joined with strikes of its own.

Khamenei predicted the “arrogant” US leader would be “overthrown” like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran up to the 1979 revolution.

“Everyone knows the Islamic republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of honourable people; it will not back down in the face of saboteurs,” he said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, on a visit to Lebanon on Friday, accused the US and Israel of “directly intervening” to try to “transform the peaceful protests into divisive and violent ones”, which a US State Department spokesperson called “delusional”.

‘Different approaches’

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said the protests have been growing in the capital, Tehran, and other cities.

“[The protests] started sporadically, but over the past two-three days, we have been witnessing more and more protests, specifically in the capital,” he said, adding that the demonstrations “flared up into violence in many streets” in Tehran on Thursday.

He said the state is trying to control the situation “with different approaches” such as tightening security measures and introducing a new subsidy scheme for citizens.

The protests are the biggest in Iran since the 2022-2023 protest movement prompted by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the dress rules for women.

A “nationwide internet blackout” implemented by the Iranian authorities as protesters took to the streets has now been in place for 36 hours, monitor NetBlocks said on Saturday.

“After another night of protests met with repression, metrics show the nationwide internet blackout remains in place at 36 hours,” it said in a post on X.

Rights group Amnesty International said the “blanket internet shutdown” aims to “hide the true extent of the grave human rights violations and crimes under international law they are carrying out to crush” the protests.

Also on Saturday, the US-based son of Iran’s ousted shah urged Iranians to stage more targeted protests, with the aim of taking and then holding city centres.

“Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centres,” Reza Pahlavi said in a video message on social media, urging more protests on Saturday and Sunday and adding he was also “preparing to return to my homeland” in a day he believed was “very near”.

Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, raising a previous toll of 45 issued the day before, said at least 51 protesters, including nine children, have been killed by security forces, and hundreds more injured.

In a joint statement on Friday, the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada and the European Union issued a strong condemnation and called on Iran to “immediately end the use of excessive and lethal force by its security forces”.

“Too many lives – over 40 to date – have already been lost,” it said.

Scotland’s resident doctors have called off a planned four-day strike over pay.

They had been set to go on the first national walkout staged by NHS workers on Tuesday, having accused ministers of going back on promises over pay.

But after further negotiations, the British Medical Association union is to suspend the strike and put a fresh pay offer to members – and is recommending that it is accepted.

Health secretary Neil Gray said it was “great news” which would avoid disruption to patient care.

Resident doctors – who used to be called junior doctors – make up about 42% of all Scotland’s doctors and range from newly qualified doctors to those with 10 years or more experience.

Members will now consider an offer of a 4.25% pay rise in 2025-26, followed by a 3.75% increase in 2026-27.

The pay deal offered by the Scottish government matches one already accepted by nurses and other healthcare staff, and was previously rejected by the BMA last year.

However it now comes alongside a separate package of contractual reform.

Gray said the deal had been struck following “days of intensive and constructive talks” between the government and the union.

He added that total investment in the offer – covering both pay and contract reform over the two-year period – will be £133m.

Dr Chris Smith, who chairs BMA Scotland’s resident doctors committee, said just before Christmas that discussions between the union and the government had been “useful” and welcomed a “constructive approach”.

Scotland has been the only part of the UK to have avoided strike action by NHS workers.

A previous proposed strike in Scotland in the summer of 2023 was called off at the last minute after a deal was agreed.

Trump has ‘greenlit’ bipartisan push to sanction countries that buy Russian energy exports, Lindsey Graham says.

United States President Donald Trump has backed a bill to impose sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil, including China and India, an influential Republican senator has said.

Lindsey Graham, a senator for the US state of South Carolina, said on Wednesday that Trump had “greenlit” the bipartisan bill following a “very productive” meeting.

Graham’s Sanctioning Russia Act, drafted with Democrat Richard Blumenthal, would give Trump the authority to impose a tariff of up to 500 percent on imports from countries doing business with Russia’s energy sector.

“This bill will allow President Trump to punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil fueling Putin’s war machine,” Graham said in a statement, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

““This bill would give President Trump tremendous leverage against countries like China, India and Brazil to incentivize them to stop buying the cheap Russian oil that provides the financing for Putin’s bloodbath against Ukraine.”

China and Russia continue to be major buyers of Russia’s oil despite US and European sanctions imposed on the Russian energy sector in response to Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

China bought nearly half of Russia’s crude oil exports in November, while India took about 38 percent of exports, according to an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. Brazil dramatically ramped up its purchase of subsidised Russian oil after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but those imports have fallen substantially in recent months.

The latest US push to increase pressure on Russia comes as Moscow and Kyiv are engaged in Washington-brokered negotiations to bring an end to the nearly four-year war.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration for the first time gave its backing to European proposals for binding security guarantees for Ukraine, including post-war truce monitoring and a European-led multinational force.

Russia, which has repeatedly said that it will not accept any deployment of NATO member countries’ soldiers in Ukraine, has yet to indicate that it would support such security measures.

In his statement on his bill, Graham said the legislation was timely in light of the current situation in Ukraine.

“This will be well-timed, as Ukraine is making concessions for peace and Putin is all talk, continuing to kill the innocent,” he said.

Caracas, January 4, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The governments of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, and Spain issued a joint statement Sunday rejecting “unilateral US actions in Venezuelan territory.”

“These actions contravene basic principles of international law and represent a very dangerous precedent for peace and regional security,” the communique read.

The joint statement followed widespread regional and global condemnation of Washington’s January 3 strikes against Venezuelan military sites and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

The countries went on to issue calls for dialogue and urged the United Nations secretary general and member states to help “de-escalate tensions and preserve peace.”

In response to US President Donald Trump’s claim that he would “run” Venezuela, the signatories expressed concern over “attempts at foreign government control or seizure of natural resources.” However, the declaration made no mention of Maduro nor called for his release.

The diplomatic response to the US attacks also included an emergency summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean nations (CELAC), held on Sunday, January 4. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil decried the US actions as blatant violations of international law and the United Nations Charter.

“The US has violated the personal immunity of a sitting head of state,” Gil told regional leaders in the conference call. “Kidnapping a president is kidnapping a people’s sovereignty.”

Venezuela’s top diplomat urged CELAC member-states to “take a step forward,” warning that silence would amount to acceptance of Washington’s unilateral acts.

A number of countries, including Venezuelan allies Russia and China, have forcefully denounced the US military operation. In a Sunday statement, Beijing charged Washington with a “clear violation of international law” and called for Maduro and Flores’ “immediate release.”

The UN Security Council is scheduled to hold an emergency session on Monday.

For her part, Venezuela Vice President and now acting Interim President Delcy Rodríguez reiterated demands for Maduro’s release and vowed that the country would not submit “to any empire.” Rodríguez held a press conference Saturday afternoon and confirmed the enactment of a decree establishing a “state of external commotion.” The instrument grants the executive additional tools, including the ability to mobilize troops or restrict civil liberties, for a period of 90 days that can be extended.

On Saturday night, the Venezuelan Supreme Court ruled that Maduro’s kidnapping and rendition to US soil constituted a temporary absence and that Rodríguez was mandated to take over the presidency on an interim basis.

Footage surfaced Saturday evening showing Maduro being walked out of an airplane in New York. He was later taken to a DEA facility before being moved, along with Flores, to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He made no statements but greeted DEA officers and appeared upbeat in photos, making a peace sign and holding his thumbs up.

The Venezuelan president was indicted by a New York district court on Saturday, with charges including “narcoterrorism conspiracy” and “possession of machine guns.” A hearing is reportedly scheduled for Monday.

For their part, Venezuela’s National BolivarianArmed Forces (FANB) likewise issued a communique on Sunday, rejecting the “cowardly kidnapping” of Maduro and Flores and reiterating its mission to “confront imperial aggression.”

The FANB voiced support for Rodríguez taking over the presidency on an acting basis and vowed to maintain readiness to preserve “peace and internal order.”

The Defense Ministry has yet to provide a report on damages and casualties from the US strikes, though Sunday’s communiqué condemned the “cold-blooded murder” of members of Maduro’s security detail. Unconfirmed reports have put forward a figure of 80 deaths.

Venezuelan popular movements and political parties took to the streets for a second consecutive day on Sunday, holding marches and rallies in Caracas and other cities. Public transportation and retail functioned to a greater degree than on Saturday.

The US attacks also spurred numerous international solidarity demonstrations over the weekend. Crowds gathered in dozens of Latin American, European and US cities. A demonstration was called for Sunday outside the Brooklyn detention center where Maduro is being held.

The January 3 operation came on the heels of the largest ever US Caribbean military build-up, with Trump having previously ordered dozebs of strikes against small boats accused of carrying drugs, killing over 100 civilians. The US president has repeatedly expressed intentions of using military threats to extract favorable oil deals for US corporations.

In a Sunday interview, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned the acting government in Caracas to “make the right decisions” and affirmed that the US retained “leverage” mechanisms, including a naval blockade stopping oil exports.

Dec. 26 (Asia Today) — A South Korean public opinion survey released Friday found majority support for a concept described as a “peaceful two-state” approach aimed at long-term unification, with respondents saying tensions should be eased first to pursue peaceful coexistence.

The Democratic Peaceful Unification Advisory Council said its fourth-quarter national unification opinion survey found 55.5% agreed with the view that hostility between South and North Korea should be resolved first to achieve peaceful coexistence and pursue long-term unification. About 40.5% disagreed.

The survey also found 56.8% approved of the Lee Jae-myung administration’s North Korea policy direction, including goals described as a Korean Peninsula “free from war worries,” “a new era of peaceful coexistence” and “joint growth” between the two Koreas. About 35.1% disapproved.

On prospects for inter-Korean relations next year, 49.4% said they expected no change, 34.3% predicted improvement and 13.6% forecast deterioration.

Asked about the necessity of unification, 68% said it is necessary, down 0.6 percentage points from the previous quarter. The most-cited reasons were economic development, at 28.2%, and eliminating the threat of war, at 27.6%.

Views of North Korea were nearly split, with 44% seeing it as an object of vigilance and hostility and 42.7% seeing it as an object of cooperation and support.

The council said the survey was conducted over three days from Friday through Sunday among 1,000 adults ages 19 and older. It reported a 95% confidence level and a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, using proportional allocation by gender, age and region and a combined telephone interview method on landlines and mobile phones.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

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