How does Australia view North Korea?
The relationship between Australia and North Korea is somewhat similar to, yet distinct from, that between North Korea and Japan. Our reporter, Kim Seok Hwi, from Australia, will explain which keywords are associated with North Korea in Australia. Unlike Japan, which has never established diplomatic relations with North Korea since the division of Korea, Australia established diplomatic relations with North Korea in 1974, only to sever them the following year in 1975. After 25 years, in 2000, Australia restored its ties with North Korea, the United Kingdom, and Canada. However, despite this diplomatic trend, Australians consistently hold a negative view of North Korea, regardless of political inclination.
According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan US social science research institution, in 2017, Australia showed the second most negative perception of North Korea in the Asia-Pacific region, after Japan, even higher than South Korea and the United States. Furthermore, a report released by Australia’s Lowy Institute last year revealed that Australians’ favorability towards North Korea, measured by an “emotional thermometer,” was a mere 16 degrees, the lowest in the world. So, what is it about North Korea that is instilling this perception in Australians? We examined the keywords that appear when North Korea is searched on Australian portal sites. The following image shows the results of a search conducted through Google, a popular search portal in Australia.
Since related search terms alone are not enough to confirm the objectivity of the data, we used a private marketing analytics service called Semrush to collect accurate figures.
According to the data, as of January 31, 2024, North Korea was searched 27,000 times on Google Australia, and search terms including the word North Korea were searched about 40,700 times. Among them, “North Korea News” topped the list with 6,600 searches, followed by “North Korea Flag,” “North Korean Population,” and “North Korean President.” This suggests that Australians not only show interest in news related to North Korea but also tend to use the flag and Kim Jong Un as elements of social satire, influencing the increase in search volume. Another interesting fact discovered through the survey is that the long phrase “North Korea launches ICBM that can reach the US” was also searched about 1,000 times. This shows that recent military provocations by North Korea, such as ballistic missile and cruise missile tests, are not only heightening tensions between North and South Korea but also exacerbating global anxiety from a perspective of world peace. Words like “North Korea Missile” and “North Korea Nuclear Weapons,” which were searched with similar frequency, can be inferred to have been created similarly. Therefore, we can see that even in Australia, which is neither an adjacent country nor directly related to North Korean issues like Japan or the United States, the influence of North Korea in terms of security is far from negligible.
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