Survey Reveals Lee Myung-bak as Leader in Presidential Race

According to the 15th pre-presidential election survey by the Dong-A Ilbo, 55.8 percent of the voters favor Grand National Party presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak, similar to that of the 14th survey conducted on October 6 (53.3 percent).

The survey conducted on Monday showed that the approval rating of United New Democratic Party presidential candidate Chung Dong-young rose to 15.5 percent, up five percent from that of the 14th survey. The two were followed by former Yuhan-Kimberly President Moon Kook-hyun (6.8 percent); Democratic Party presidential candidate Rhee In-je(5.1 percent); Democratic Labor Party presidential candidate Kwon Young-ghil (2.5 percent); and People First Party presidential candidate Shim Dae-pyung (0.75 percent).

At the request of the Dong-A Ilbo, the opinion polling company, Korea Research Center (KRC), conducted a telephone opinion survey on 1,000 adults nationwide on Wednesday, which showed that Lee would receive 57.7 percent of the vote, when facing off against Chung and Kwon, who would receive 24.2 percent and 6.6 percent each. The results of this survey show that if Rhee joins the simulated race, 60.7 percent of the respondents will pick Lee, followed by Chung (14.5 percent) and Kwon (12.6 percent). Similarly, if Moon joins the race, 63.7 percent will choose Lee, followed by Chung (14.3 percent) and Kwon (11.3 percent).

With regard to the ideological traits of the presidential hopefuls, 37.7 percent said Lee is conservative, while almost the same number of people, or 35.9 percent, viewed him as progressive. However, the proportion of people who believed Chung to be progressive was 46.5 percent, almost three times the number of people who saw him as conservative, or 16.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the approval rating of President Roh Moo-hyun dropped to 39.2 percent, down 11.4 percent compared to that of the 14th survey.

With regard to the disputed Northern Limit Line, 66.1 percent said, “It is the de facto territorial line,” while less than half of the number, or 26.6 percent, answered, “It cannot be viewed as a territorial line.”

When asked about the North Korea policy of the next administration, 57.2 percent replied, “The incumbent administration’s North Korea policy should be reviewed,” while 40.0 percent answered, “The existing policy should be maintained.”

Regarding economic policies, 59.3 percent said, “The government should put more emphasis on growth,” while 35.5 percent said, “It should put more emphasis on distribution.”

The approval rating of the GNP was 52.8 percent, followed by the UNDP (14.4 percent), the DLP (7.6 percent), and DP (6.8 percent).

swpark@donga.com