Tag: polls

President Yoon’s strong stance against the doctor strike has the South Korean public beginning to rally around his administration with his approval rate now at 39%:

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s rising job approval ratings in recent weeks are bolstering the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and undermining the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea’s (DPK) strategy ahead of the upcoming general elections on April 10, which sought to exploit public dissatisfaction surrounding the president and his wife.

According to a Gallup Korea poll released on Friday, 39 percent of respondents positively assessed Yoon’s performance as the president, remaining flat from a week earlier.

In Gallup Korea polls, Yoon’s approval rating plummeted to 29 percent in the first week of February but climbed steadily to 39 percent by the end of that month. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

President Moon and his Democrat Party keeps dropping in the approval ratings, but the Korean conservatives have yet to offer someone as their counter to him to capitalize on his unpopularity:

President Moon Jae-in’s job approval rating has fallen to a record low of 37.4 percent, a poll showed Thursday, with a rift between the justice minister and the top prosecutor deepening and housing prices in major areas continuing to rise.

Public approval for the ruling Democratic Party (DP) also dropped to 28.9 percent, the lowest since the launch of the Moon administration in May 2017, while that of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) rose to 31.2 percent, according to Realmeter.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

President Moon’s approval rating is still very high at 58%, but it has dropped nearly 20 points in the past three months which has to be worrying:

President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating dipped to a record low of 58 percent, the first time the president’s popularity fell below the 60 percent level since he took office in May 2017.

In a poll conducted by Realmeter between Monday and Wednesday of 1,507 adults nationwide, support for Moon declined by 5.2 percentage points to 58 percent from 63.2 percent a week earlier amid controversy over minimum wage hikes that have hurt small business owners and seemingly depressed new hiring across the country.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder what President Moon’s approval rating will be once the Kim regime reneges on its promise to denuclearize?

After opening the article bashing the President Trump for the recent Singapore summit, the article then goes on to explain that the summit was a huge success in the opinion of South Koreans:

In South Korea, however, the prism is different. Discussions center less on Trump’s achievements or lack of them, or his failures to live up to his own word, and more on the possibilities his summit opened up — in particular his new relationship with Kim. Which is why they welcome phone calls between the pair.

Singapore was not a failure for many in South Korea, but an opportunity.

According to a Gallup survey of more than 1,000 people two days after the summit, two thirds of the population said they think the Kim/Trump meeting was a success. Only one in 10 thought it a failure.  [CNN]

The majority of Americans may support defending South Korea if attacked, but currently only a minority of 40% support any preemptive military action:

More than 60 percent of Americans are in favor of sending troops to defend South Korea in the event of an attack by North Korea, a survey showed Monday, indicating a strengthened commitment toward the Asian ally.

The survey, conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs with support from the Korea Foundation, found 62 percent of Americans favored the use of U.S. troops if North Korea invaded South Korea, the first time there was a majority since the first survey in 1990.

The council attributed the spike to the public’s sense of a heightened threat from North Korea.

The survey was conducted on a weighted national sample of 2,020 adults living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia between June 27 and July 19. Some of the respondents are presumed to have been aware of North Korea’s first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile on July 4.

The ICBM had the range to strike Alaska or Hawaii, according to experts.

According to the survey, 75 percent of the respondents viewed North Korea’s nuclear program as a critical threat, up 15 percentage points from last year and 20 points from 2015.

The council said it was the largest on-year increase for a potential threat mentioned in this year’s survey.

North Korea’s nuclear program ranked among the top threats facing the country, it added.

On the policy options to stop the North’s nuclear weapons program, imposing tighter economic sanctions on the country won the most support with 76 percent, followed by imposing sanctions on Chinese companies doing business with North Korea at 68 percent.

The other options were conducting airstrikes on nuclear production facilities (40 percent), sending U.S. troops to destroy nuclear facilities (28 percent), accepting that North Korea will possess nuclear weapons in exchange for producing no more (21 percent), and accepting that North Korea will produce more nuclear weapons (11 percent).  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Keep this study in mind the next time you see the anti-US groups out protesting; they don’t speak for the silent majority of South Koreans:

Today, a global median of 49% hold a favorable view of the U.S. This is a considerable drop from the median of 64% recorded across the same countries in the final years of the Obama administration.

In just four of 10 EU countries surveyed is the public positively inclined toward the U.S. The most widespread support is found in Poland (73%), Hungary (63%) and Italy (61%). In spite of the “special relationship” between America and the United Kingdom, only 50% of the British see the U.S. favorably. The most negative views of the U.S. are in Germany (62% unfavorable), Spain (60%) and the Netherlands (59%). And in the past year the share of the Spanish public that expresses a very unfavorable opinion has roughly tripled from 7% to 23%.

Only about four-in-ten Canadians (43%) and Russians (41%) express a favorable view of America.

There is strong support for the U.S. in Vietnam (84%), the Philippines (78%) and South Korea (75%). A majority of Japanese (57%) agree. But Australians are evenly split (48% favorable, 48% unfavorable). And roughly half of Indians (49%) have a positive view, although 42% express no opinion.  [Pew Research Center via Reddit]

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting experiment put together by the New York Times:

An experiment led by Kyle Dropp of Morning Consult from April 27-29, conducted at the request of The New York Times, shows that respondents who could correctly identify North Korea tended to view diplomatic and nonmilitary strategies more favorably than those who could not. These strategies included imposing further economic sanctions, increasing pressure on China to influence North Korea and conducting cyberattacks against military targets in North Korea.

If it makes anyone feel better according to this poll nearly 78% of Japanese hate China as well:

Nearly 60 percent of Japanese people said they hate Korea in a survey conducted last year and released Sunday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The national image of Korea is the worst in Japan among 14 other countries where citizens were interviewed as part of a survey conducted by Samjong KPMG and commissioned by the ministry.

It showed that only 14.3 percent of Japanese respondents hold positive views about Korea, the lowest among 14 countries.

It surveyed 5,600 people in 14 countries about Korea’s image between October and November 2014.

The 14 countries were Malaysia, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Russia, the United States, Romania, Britain, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan.

The accounting and financial advisory firm attributed Korea’s negative image in Japan to the ongoing historical and territorial disputes.

“The results suggest that persistent rows over historical issues and the relevant anti-Korea campaigns by rightwing activists affected popular sentiment in Japan,” a company official said.  [The Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

70% of Americans favor tighter sanctions on North Korea, new survey shows. @KarlFriedhoff https://t.co/Zkl4lQw220 pic.twitter.com/FLsCdZeYk8

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) October 14, 2015

Despite what Donald Trump has been saying about the US-ROK relationship, the vast majority of Americans have a very positive view of both the military and diplomatic relationship with South Korea:

More than eight in 10 Americans say relations with South Korea are important while American support for the use of U.S. armed forces to defend the Asian ally stands at an all-time high, an opinion poll showed Tuesday.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs released the survey results ahead of South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s visit to Washington this week. Park is scheduled to hold talks with President Barack Obama at the White House on Friday.

“As President Park Geun-hye visits the United States, American opinion of South Korea is largely positive. Majorities say US-ROK relations are important and see South Korea as a reliable partner,” the council said in a statement.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.