Lee's popularity rating dives amid escalating feud with Roh

Posted on : 2007-06-15 21:39 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST

A psychological war between President Roh Moo-hyun and leading opposition presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak is about to spin out of control, with both parties threatening to file libel suits against each other on Friday.

As the conflict intensifies, the public approval ratings for Lee, a former Seoul mayor and the main opposition Grand National Party's (GNP) most popular presidential hopeful, are gradually sliding.

In one recent opinion poll released by the vernacular JoongAng Ilbo, Lee's approval rating took a nosedive from 40.2 percent on May 23 to 33.2 percent on June 13, a fall of 7 percentage points in a period of only 20 days.

Considering Lee has steadily enjoyed ratings of over 40 percent for half a year since late last year, the latest figure is considered a grave disappointment to his election campaign camp.

In contrast, popularity ratings for Park Geun-hye, Lee's archrival and former GNP chairwoman, have shown few changes over the past months, standing at 27.5 percent in the Wednesday poll.

Political watchers say Lee has been hit hard by growing controversy over his key campaign pledges to build an inland waterway across the country, as Roh attacked the project as "deceptive" and a government task force dubbed it "economically unfeasible."

"The heated debate over the inland canal project must have worked unfavorably for Lee. But it is too early to determine the repercussions from the latest revelations of suspicious real estate transactions involving Lee and his family decades ago," said Ahn Bu-geun, a Seoul-based survey expert.

In another survey conducted by media research firm Realmeter, Lee's popularity rating dropped 1.7 percentage points to 38.2 percent this week, compared with Park's 30.4 percent.

It is the first time this year that the approval rating gap between Lee and Park has been reduced to one digit.

On Friday afternoon, Roh's office, Cheong Wa Dae, threatened to file a libel suit against Lee's two spokespersons for damaging the reputation of the president and his aides by spreading false allegations.

"Representatives Park Hyung-joon and Chin Soo-hee, spokespersons for Lee, are accused of spreading false rumors that all government organizations have been mobilized at the instruction of Cheong Wa Dae to mount a political offensive against Lee," Roh's spokesman Cheon Ho-seon said.

Lee's camp has said that Roh, Cheong Wa Dae and some government agencies are behind the pro-government Uri Party's successive revelations of suspicious real estate transactions involving Lee and his family.

Cheong Wa Dae's hard-line move provoked an immediate backlash from Lee and his supporters. "We're already prepared to take all possible reciprocal actions against Cheong Wa Dae. If they want a fight, we'll cope with a fight," said Rep. Lee Jae-oh, a senior member of the Lee camp.

Lee himself said that it is unprecedented in Korean politics for the presidential office and the pro-government party to try to intervene in the main opposition party's race to pick a presidential candidate.

"Cheong Wa Dae must stop attacking me before asking for my apology. The president has openly denounced my campaign pledges, while his political allies have made unfounded allegations against me," Lee said.

Adding confusion to the conflict between Roh and Lee, Uri's floor leader Chang Young-dal said that his party has secured "important files" that could deal a serious blow to both Lee and Park in the presidential race.

"We'll hold the files until Aug. 19, when the GNP picks its presidential candidate. The files, if disclosed, would significantly hurt whoever wins the GNP ticket," Chang said.
SEOUL, June 15 (Yonhap News)

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