These days I intentionally use the ROK when I have to specify the country I'm living in. I've seen many non-Koreans think we and the DPRK people are basically cousins. I mean that's kind of true, genetically... because a lot of families were torn apart during the Korean War. But culturally and politically we do not share anything in common and it is rather insulting to talk to us as if we share national identity with Kim Jong Un. (we don't even follow the same rules when we spell our names with English alphabet.)

I am aware of that the DPRK has been involved in illegal drug trade internationally. They have been committing a lot of international crimes and been criticized for that. And we might become the first victim of the fruits of those crimes. When I stayed in the USA for one year for a student exchange program, I got a lot of questions from Americans whether I was from South Korea or North Korea. That was more than a decade ago. I hope people these days are cultured enough to know that we two are different countries.