Lee’s Popularity Slides from 43.4 to 38.5 Percent

The approval-rating gap between former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak and former Grand National Party Chairwoman Park Geun-hye narrowed to less than 20 percent for the first time since an opinion poll was carried out in December 2006 by the Dong-A Ilbo.

In a survey conducted on Thursday by the Dong-A Ilbo with the Korea Research Center (KRC) of 1,000 adults in the country, Lee’s approval rating recorded 38.5 percent and that of Park reached 25.5 percent, suggesting a popularity gap of 13 percent.

Lee’s approval rating dropped by 4.9 percent compared to that of the previous survey conducted by the Dong-A Ilbo on May 30 and 31, plummeting to below 40 percent for the first time since a survey was conducted by the paper last December.

Park’s approval ratings rose by 2.8 percent compared to that of the last survey, earning 25.5 percent.

The two rival GNP contenders were followed by former Gyeonggi Province Governor Sohn Hak-gyu (6.7 percent), Rep. Kwon Young-ghil of the Democratic Labor Party (2.2 percent), former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan (2.0 percent), and former Uri Party Chairman Chung Dong-young (1.6 percent).

When asked who they would vote for, if Lee and Sohn run for president on the tickets of the GNP and the pro-government bloc, respectively, 67.3 percent of the surveyed picked Lee, and 21.6 percent supported Sohn. When the same question was asked between Park and Sohn, 56.7 percent of the respondents favored Park, and 34.5 percent picked Sohn.

Meanwhile, 26.9 percent said they are content with President Roh’s state management, while 63.0 percent of Koreans disapproved President Roh’s handling of state affairs.

When asked how the inter-Korean summit in June 2000 has influenced inter-Korean relations, 50.4 percent said it has not made a significant contribution; 33.7 percent said it has created a positive impact, and 7.7 percent said it has made a negative impact.

With regard to the announcement of increasing KBS’s TV license fee from 2,500 won to 4,000 won per month, 91.4 percent opposed and 7.1 percent supported the measure.

The telephone survey has a 95 percent confidence level, and a sampling error of ±3.1 percent.

mindy@donga.com