President Roh`s Approval Rate Falls 16.9%

The Dong-a Ilbo on May 25 conducted a public opinion poll on President Roh, whose term is in its third month. The results of the public poll found that the approval rate of the President was 55.2%, a 16.9% decrease from 72.1% in the previous survey conducted on March 29.

The Korea Research Center carried out the public poll at the request of the Dong-a newspaper company. In the poll, among the answers, the President`s careless speech and behavior (11.5%) topped the list as his most negative aspects.

Meanwhile, regarding his attitude shown during his recent visit to the U.S., 55% of respondents interpreted it as a choice for embracing pragmatic diplomacy, outnumbering those who though of the President as fawning on the U.S. (31.2%).

However, on the economic front, 53.6% of respondents said that the overall Korean economic condition was much worse than that of when Korea received its IMF bailout package and 35.1% said that the economy was nearly the same, which shows most Koreans are concerned with the economy.

A total of 41.4% respondents favored the formation of a new political party based on the current foundation of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party, while 32.7% favored a new political party created mainly by reformists within the ruling party.

With regards to creating a new party led by reformists, the projected support rates of the MDP will be 21.0%, those supporting the opposition Grand National Party will be 16.7% and those supporting the new party will be 12.5% in the upcoming general elections.

This survey was conducted by nationwide telephone interviews of 1049 adult Koreans on May 25 and the margin for error (95% standard error) was ±3.1%.

Further information on the poll is provided at www.donga.com.

sunny60@donga.com