A year of warming relations between North and South Korea has raised the prospects of closer ties, if not some form of unification for the still-warring neighbors far in the future. But it might not be obvious in a typical South Korean classroom.

"I really don't know anything," 17-year-old student Roh Ha-na said. "It's like only twice a year that the school teaches about unification and national security, and about North Korean life ... but I just let most of it go in one ear and out the other."

This year's inter-Korean detente has highlighted what many observers see as a lack of knowledge among South Koreans about their northern neighbor, prompting government efforts to revamp the way South Koreans learn about North Korea and unification.