hankyoreh

Oct. 2. (photo pool)

By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter

Since South Korean President Park Geun-hye took office, public sentiment about the timing of the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON), which South Korea has asked the US to delay, has been split down the middle between “transfer now” and “put off until later,” a recent poll shows.

Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Jae-joon, who is a member of the National Defense Committee in the National Assembly, commissioned polling company Union Research to conduct a survey of 1,000 adults older than 19.

The results of the poll showed nearly equal support for both positions.

45.2% of respondents said that the OPCON transfer should be delayed because of the increased threat posed by North Korea, while 45.1% said that OPCON belongs to the South Korean military and should be transferred as the two countries had agreed.

The pollsters also asked who ought to have wartime operational control of the South Korean military. For this question, 57.0% of people polled said that OPCON should be held by the ROK military, with 37.5% favoring American control, showing that a majority prefers the transfer.

On the other hand, 53.6% of people said that the Park administration did the right thing when it asked the US to delay the timing of the OPCON transfer once again, while only 33.4% responded that that was the wrong thing to do. The poll indicated that more South Koreans are of the opinion that delaying the timing of the transfer is a good idea.

The public opinion survey was conducted on Oct. 12 by telephone, including mobile phones and landlines.

The poll’s sampling error was ±3.1%p with a reliability of 95%. The response rate was 13.8%.

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