SEOUL, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Most North Korean defectors in South Korea believe their communist homeland will collapse within ten years, a government report said Wednesday.
According to a survey conducted by South Korea's state-run Korea Institute for National Unification, some 71 percent North Korean defectors polled expect the Kim Jong Il regime to break down in less than ten years.
Some 23 percent forecast the North Korean regime could survive just another five years, and 48 percent expect the regime to collapse in five to 10 years.
Less than 4 percent of the defectors expect North Korea to survive longer than 30 years, according to the survey of 314 North Koreans who have found asylum in South Korea.
Citing the survey, the institute said the North Korean regime, which has relied on the personality cult of Kim Jong Il to rule the hermit kingdom, is vulnerable to influx of outside information.
The report also said corruption among the ruling elite is rampant in the North, which could lead to an earlier collapse of the communist regime.
