hankyoreh

Gyeonggi Province

Following the high-level talks between South and North Korea on Aug. 25, President Park Geun-hye’s approval rating jumped to nearly 50%, a poll shows.

On Aug. 28, Gallup Korea announced that 49% of the 1,004 adults from around South Korea that it surveyed between Aug. 25 and Aug. 27 thought positively of Park’s job performance.

Aug. 28. (Blue House photo pool)

This was a 15 percentage point jump from just one week ago, when Park’s approval rating was 34%, and it is the highest number since the third week of April 2014 (59%), just before the sinking of the Sewol ferry. Negative assessments of Park’s job performance fell 12 percentage points to 44%, with positive responses leading negative ones for the first time since November 2014, 10 months ago.

The greatest reason for the sudden surge in Park’s approval rating, which had been stuck around 30%, was the outcome of the high-level talks on Aug. 25, the survey found.

At 38%, the most popular reason given for giving Park a positive assessment was her “policy toward security and North Korea.” Another popular reason was Park’s “beliefs and convictions and her refusal to be shaken by popular opinion” (15%).

Park’s approval rating was highest among people in their 50s and 60s, 69% and 80% of whom thought she was doing a good job. Positive assessment nearly doubled among people in their 40s, jumping from 23% the week prior to 46%.

When asked about the agreement reached in the high-level talks on Aug. 25, 65% of respondents said they thought the negotiations had gone well, while only 16% thought they had gone poorly.

Approval ratings for President Park Geun-hye

Popular reasons given for why the negotiations had gone well included “dialogue, agreement and a peaceful resolution” (23%) and “easing tensions and pulling back from a quasi state of war” (22%). 13% of respondents were pleased that North Korea had expressed its regret.

In regard to the most important result of the agreement, the most common response was “reunions for divided families” (17%). This was followed by “concluding dialogue and negotiations in a short time” and “expressing regret for the DMZ landmine explosion,” both of these were chosen by 14% of respondents.

With a number of favorable conditions in place for the second half of the year – including Park’s attendance at China’s ceremony commemorating the victory over Japan, Park’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the reunions of divided families in early October – experts think that Park’s high approval rating will continue for some time.

“During the time of tension between North and South Korea, President Park clearly positioned herself as the ‘commander in chief.’ For the time being, her high approval rating is likely to enable her to take the initiative in the affairs of state. It’s very likely that she will strongly push for structural reforms in four areas, including restructuring the labor market,” said Yun Hui-ung, director of the public opinion analysis center at Opinion Live.

20% of people contacted by pollsters responded to the survey, which was 95% reliable with a ±3.1% margin of error.

By Choi Hye-jung, staff reporter

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