Over half of South Koreans believed that their government should more selectively accepting defectors from the North, a poll released by the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies (IPUS) at Seoul National University showed on Wednesday.

The institute surveyed a representative sample of 1200 South Koreans aged between 19 and 74 in face-to-face interviews in July.

51.4 percent of respondents said the government should “selectively accept” defectors who want to enter South Korea, while 34.1 percent believed all new arrivals should be allowed in.

The poll also hinted at other shifts in public opinion in the last ten years: only