Most Koreans Oppose Political Shakeup

There are talks of realignment within the political community, but according to survey conducted by Dong-A Ilbo and the Korea Research Center (KRC) on 1,003 adults nation-wide, the majority of the Korean public is opposed to the political shakeup.

It turns out that 44 percent of the respondents were against the idea of the Uri Party and the Democratic Party’s merger or solidarity, with 35.8 percent for it.

When asked about the merger or solidarity of the Grand National Party and the Democratic Party, 57.9 percent of the respondents were opposed and a mere 25.3 percent supported the idea.

When asked about the current administration’s economic policies, 78.5 percent, which is eight out of ten, expressed negative opinions with 47 percent said that the government was “bad” and 31.5 percent “very bad.” Only 17.1 percent took a positive view about the Roh administration’s economy policies.

Also, while only 17.1 percent said that the economic situation of Korea will become better next year, 39.3 percent said that the situation will aggravate.

The most favored presidential candidate was Lee Myung-bak. The former Mayor of Seoul won 24 percent in approval rates. Park Geun-hye, former chairwoman of the Grand National Party (GNP) won 22 percent and Goh Kun, former prime minister won 21.2 percent in approval rates. It is highly possible that the results will be overturned since the approval rates are within the error tolerance.

When the people were asked, “Regardless of whom you support, who is most likely to become the next president?” 27.8 percent answered Lee Myung-bak, with 22% percent for Park Geun-hye and 20.5 percent for Goh Kun.

While 30.5 percent of the respondents said that President Roh was doing well in terms of national administration, 61.4 percent said that he was doing badly.

The sampling error of this survey is ±3.1 percentage points and confidence level is 95 percent. The full report is available at www.donga.com.

jkmas@donga.com sanjuck@donga.com