▲ This undated graphic image provided by Yonhap News TV shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Yonhap) -- More than 80 percent of South Koreans viewed South and North Korea as separate states, a survey showed Tuesday.

According to the poll conducted by Gallup Korea and commissioned by Seoul National University's Institute for Peace and Unification Studies (IPUS), 81.8 percent said they viewed South and North Korea as two separate states.

The poll showed that 53.5 percent of the respondents recognized North Korea as a state, while 38.7 percent viewed it as a partner for cooperation, up 4.7 percentage points from the previous year.

Notably, 62.4 percent of liberals saw North Korea as likely to stage a military provocation, higher than 54.2 percent among conservatives.

"This is a highly unusual phenomenon, as security concerns tended to decline among liberal supporters, while rising among conservatives under liberal administrations," Kim Byung-ro, a researcher at IPUS, said as the institute announced the findings.

When asked about South Korea's territory, 60.8 percent viewed the country's territory as limited to the area under its effective control in the South, while 28.3 percent said it encompasses the entire Korean Peninsula as stipulated in the Constitution.

Article 3 of the Constitution stipulates that the territory of the Republic of Korea consists of the Korean Peninsula and its adjacent islands.

The poll was conducted among 1,200 adults from July 1 to 26 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

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