hankyoreh

The first preparatory procedure at the Constitutional Court in Seoul’s Jongno district on Dec. 22 on the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye. On the bottom left are National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee members

A new year public opinion poll by the Hankyoreh found that there is still overwhelming support for President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment, with eight out of 10 respondents wanting the Constitutional Court to uphold the motion of impeachment against her. When asked about the timing of the court‘s decision, more than half of respondents wanted the decision to be made by January, while seven out of ten wanted it to be made no later than March.

When asked what decision they think the Constitutional Court should make in its review of the motion of impeachment, 80.2% of respondents in the poll (held between Dec. 28 and 29) said they think Park should be impeached. Just 14.9% said that Park should not be impeached, which means that support for impeachment exceeded opposition by 65.3 percentage points. 4.9% of respondents were not sure or declined to answer.

and on the right are Park’s legal defense team. (pool photo)

By region, support for Park’s impeachment was the strongest in traditional liberal stronghold Gwangju and Jeolla Province at 97.6%, followed by Incheon and Gyeonggi Province (83.9%), Daejeon, Sejong City and Chungcheong Province (81.2%) and Seoul (80.1%). Gangwon Province and Jeju Island (68.9%) and Busan, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang Province (71.4%), a traditional conservative stronghold, were below average. While support for impeachment in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province was below the national average at 69.3%, this was still more than twice the percentage who opposed her impeachment (25.3%).

Support for impeachment exceeded 90% among respondents in their 20s (95.7%), their 30s (92.7%) and their 40s (91.6%). Among respondents in their 50s, 72.8% were in favor compared to 22% against, while the gap narrowed to 24 percentage points among respondents who were 60 years old and above (55.9% for and 31.9% against). This implies that opposition to Park’s impeachment is concentrated among those who are 50 and older.

On question of impeachment by the Constitutional Court

When categorized by political affiliation, more than 90% of supporters of the opposition Minjoo Party, People’s Party and Justice Party were in favor of impeachment. Strikingly, 75% of supporters of the tentatively titled New Conservative Party for Reform were also for impeachment (compared to 18% against). Among those who identified themselves as Saenuri Party supporters, only 22.8% were in favor of impeachment, with 69.5% opposed.

98.2% of respondents who support presidential candidate Moon Jae-in were in favor of impeachment, but just 50.5% of those who support Ban Ki-moon for president are in favor of impeachment, with 41.4% opposed. 54.4% of those who said they voted for Park during the 2012 presidential election supported her impeachment, a decisive margin over the 35.1% who were opposed to it.

When asked about the possible timing of the Constitutional Court’s ruling on Park’s impeachment, the largest percentage, 56%, said January, with 13.8% preferring February or March, 2.3% preferring April or May and 2.8% preferring June. 21.9% said the decision should be left to the Constitutional Court. The fact that a majority of respondents chose January even though it is impractical for the decision to be made in January is interpreted to mean that the majority of South Koreans want the court to make a swift decision.

Similarities can be seen in the distribution of respondents who thought the timing of the decision should be left to the Constitutional Court and respondents who were opposed to Park‘s impeachment. These respondents were most numerous in Daegu and North Gyeongsang (36.6%), among those in their 50s (32.1%) and those in their 60s and above (33.1%), among those affiliated with the Saenuri Party (45.3%), and among supporters of Ban Ki-moon (39.3%). In contrast, 73.7% of respondents who supported Moon Jae-in said the ruling should be made in January, and just 7.9% of Moon supporters left the question of timing to the Court’s discretion.

By Seok Jin-hwan, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]