More than a quarter of South Korean college students are willing to work in North Korea after reunification if they could get a job there, a local poll showed Wednesday.

According to the poll conducted by a research center at Seoul's Kookmin University on 1,004 students, more than 25 percent said they are willing to work in the North.

The survey was based on 731 freshmen and 273 students in their second to fourth years.

Sophomore, junior and senior students were more favorably inclined to working in the North than freshmen, with 29 percent answering positively to the question, compared to 26 percent for the freshmen.

"Students think there will be more opportunities in terms of employment, economic and social activities," a researcher said.

"The poll result reflects that upper grade students are under greater pressure to find jobs than freshman students."

When asked whether they can become friends with people from North Korea, 77 percent of first year students and 67 percent of upper grade students answered positively.

To the question of whether they can work with a colleague from the North, 69 percent of freshmen and 57 percent of upper grade students showed positive attitudes.

About 40 percent of each group said they could date a North Korean, but only 30 percent of freshmen and 25 percent of upper grade students answered positively when asked whether they would actually marry someone from the North. 

Half of freshmen and 42 percent of upper grade students agreed with creating a new scholarship for students from North Korea.

While about half of the respondents -- 46 percent of freshmen and 52 percent of upper grade students -- agreed to reunification, only 17 and 31 percent of them thought it likely that the two Koreas would unify. 

The research center said a majority of students viewed North Korea as a country that the South could work with rather than a hostile enemy.

Students who had the experience of meeting a North Korean defector had a tendency of changing their perception on North Koreans more positively, whereas their views on the communist regime turned more negative.

"The poll result shows that college students see North Korea as a partner to cooperate with for reunification, while acknowledging the threats from the North," a professor said. (Yonhap)