Seven out of 10 South Korean students see North Korea as the biggest threat to national security, with half of them feeling reunification of the Korean Peninsula is a necessity, a poll showed Monday.

According to the survey of 1,489 primary and middle school students in Seoul, 71 percent said North Korea is the No. 1 entity that poses a threat to national security, followed by 11.3 percent citing Japan and 5 percent pointing to the United States.

A majority of the respondents had knowledge of the 1950-53 Korean War, with 86.8 percent accurately saying the communist North initiated the war, the survey showed.

The survey was conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education last week at the request of Rep. Lee Hak-jae of the ruling Saenuri Party, after a survey by a local newspaper sparked controversy over students' knowledge of history.

According to the report, 69 percent of high school students characterized the war as "bukchim" or "a northward invasion." Many, however, argued that the result was likely caused by confusion over the definition of "bukchim," with students mistaking it as meaning that the war was started by the North.

It is an indisputable fact that tank-led communist troops surged into the South in massive numbers starting the conflict on June 25, and the war ended in a cease-fire, not a formal peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula technically still at war. 

Asked about reunification, some 50.3 percent said they felt the need to achieve unity, far higher than some 10.5 percent who saw reunification as useless and 12.1 percent who were indifferent to the issue.

In a question about which country, except the two Koreas, would exert a strongest influence on the reunification, 55.6 percent cited the U.S., followed by China with 15.6 percent, Japan with 7.3 percent and Russia with 2.6 percent, the survey showed. (Yonhap News)