It's not hard to find North Korea watchers who are critical about the level of effort being made in South Korea to prepare for major change in the DPRK. Although South Korea's Ministry of Unification has in one form or another been tasked with preparing for reunification since 1969, progress towards the once laudable goal has been at best, glacial. And while government initiatives often get tangled in politics, observers say an additional problem now relates to the general public's increasingly apathetic attitudes towards unification.

But although it is understandable that South Korean interest in the DPRK is decreasing with time, the fall of the USSR and Berlin Wall both underscore how seemingly unimaginable changes can quickly change realities on the ground. And if similar changes occur on the Korean peninsula, will South Korea be ready?

To find out, we asked eleven defectors to share their thoughts about the current state of preparedness in South Korea and, specifically, about what steps the Seoul government and NGO community should take to better prepare the public for change.

From efforts to improve public perceptions of ordinary North Koreans to the need to avoid revenge killings in a post-collapse scenario, many of the responses underscore one important issue: the urgent need to educate South Koreans about the benefits of unification.

To learn more about the biographies of the refugees NK News interviewed for this series, please click here

Question 4. What do you think are the most urgent and important steps that the South Korean government and relevant NGO / activist organizations should take to prepare for changes in North Korea?

South Korea simply wants to avoid unification. That's because the South Koreans are scared of the potential tax burden and of what it will be like to live side-by-side with North Koreans.

Because of this, I believe it is important for the South Korean government and NGOs to make efforts to change South Korean perspectives. South Koreans need to be open-minded about living with North Koreans and in particular – to understand that unification is coming and has to come, no matter what they want.

I believe the current discourse about unification focuses too much on economic issues and does not focus enough on pointing out that above all unification is about living together.

The constant discussion of economic worries will not help relax tensions between North and South Koreans, especially if defectors are discriminated against in South Korea, as they are now. The role of civil society should therefore be to focus on this fact in an effort to change perceptions of living together.

South Korea needs to educate North Koreans as to how unethical and anti-democratic their current dictatorship is through the defectors. There's nothing more urgent than the unification of the Korean Peninsula.

If more money is spent on national defense while the two Koreas are separated, it affects the economy. Some politicians are waiting for the North Korean regime to collapse on its own. They also try to bring a change through economic cooperation. But these are the wrong methods, I think.

The North Korea's regime won't collapse on its own. Economic aid and cooperation will only help the North Korean regime survive and retain its power.

The South Korean government therefore needs to help NGOs and organizations more actively engage.

Many South Koreans, especially younger ones, are against the unification of Korea. If this continues, unification will never come and the conflict between the two Koreas will never end. NGOs need to raise awareness by putting defectors at the forefront of the debate.

North Korea is a closed country. Even the most basic freedoms are limited and government control is strong. People are brainwashed and they cannot receive appropriate information. As such, they don't actually know that they are lacking the most basic human rights – which means they can't even get angry about this. It is therefore critical that more effort is made at informing North Koreans in North Korea about their actual situation.

In recent years defectors have confirmed that North Koreans are becoming more and more informed about the outside world through media and information as the border becomes more porous. If NGOS could distribute increased amounts of outside information within North Korea then it would provide impetus for the collapse of North Korean government.

In North Korea, you are either the oppressor or the oppressed – there's no such thing as middle ground. But this might all swing in the opposite direction if there are radical changes in the North. Indeed, there will be countless people who hold grudges against the government for its ruthless and oppressive rule.

So, without adequate measures after a regime collapse North Korea could become a stage for bloody retaliation. Revenge will beget even more revenge. If we don't prepare beforehand, the country will turn into a bloodbath within just a few months of any major transition.

I have heard that people in North Korea's security forces say that they may one day need to escape into China. I think this shows just how high people's hostile sentiment could be — and the level of fear in the North Korean government. Therefore, North Korea will need international aid,