One Year After Election, President Besieged by Scandals

By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter

About six out of 10 people disapprove of President Roh Moo-hyun’s job performance, citing his poor management of the economy.

According to a recent survey conducted by The Korea Times, more than half of those who voted for Roh in the Dec. 19 presidential election, said they would not support for him, if an election were held today.

About half of the respondents said Roh should be held to his comment that he would resign if prosecution evidence confirms he collected more than a fraction of the illicit funds taken by Grand National Party (GNP).

Half the respondents said they supported the government’s decision to send an additional 3,000 soldiers, while the other half either objected to it or called for a reduction in the size of the contingent.

The survey is based on a nationwide, random sample of 1,000 adults who answered questions about national affairs. Questions were posed December 16, three days ahead of the first anniversary of Roh’s election. MRI Media Research was hired as pollster. The margin of error is 3.1 percent.

A majority at 57.6 percent negatively evaluated Roh’s job performance, but the figure marked an improvement from 65.1 percent in the previous survey conducted after his proposal for a national referendum.

The latest survey found that supporters rose by 5.7 percentage points to 37.8 percent.

More than 52 percent disapproved of the poor state of economy, while nearly three quarters said that fixing the economy should be Roh’s top priority.

About 56 percent said that they wouldn’t vote for Roh again, while 31 percent said that they would. The constitution bars presidents from running for reelection.

The respondents were equally divided between pros and cons _ 43.9 percent supporting it and 6.2 percent calling for a larger dispatch and 18 percent supporting a reduction in size. Thirty percent completely objected to the dispatch.

In connection with the ongoing ‘’1/10’’ comment, 50.3 percent said that Roh should be punished without specifying how, should he be found to have done anything wrong. About 12 percent said that Roh should retire, if he lied. One third said that Roh should finish his term no matter what is found.

Asked how to deal with Lee Hoi-chang, candidate for the majority Grand National Party (GNP) in last year’s presidential election, two thirds said that he should be legally held responsible, while one third said that they want to get to the bottom of the case but Lee should be spared any legal responsibility. The result runs counter to sympathy prevalent following Lee’s recent announcement of mea culpa before voluntarily appearing for prosecutors’ questioning.

An overwhelming majority wants to see the current investigations into the illegal campaign funding scandal go on until all truth is uncovered, while 36 percent either wanted to put limitations on the period or have them wrapped up immediately.

More than half said that they have to wait and see until they can say whether prosecutors’ investigations are fair or not. GNP chairman Choe Byung-yul recently vowed to submit a special prosecutor bill on the funding scandal, claiming that prosecutors are targeting his party, while sparing the Roh camp.

Being hammered by a flurry of revelations about its illegal fundraising last year, public approval of the GNP tumbled 8.3 percentage points in two months to 19.9 percent. The Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) gained 2.5 percentage points to 19.6 percent. Uri Party support rose to 3.5 percentage points to 15.8 percent. Nearly half of the respondents said Roh should not join the Uri Party and should remain nonpartisan.