By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter

President Roh Moo-hyun’s popularity has plunged to 34.9 percent from its highest level of 57.8 percent in March when the National Assembly passed the impeachment motion against him, according to an opinion poll.

The steep drop in popularity is attributed to the Roh administration’s decision to push ahead with the controversial plan to relocate the capital and send additional troops to Iraq.

The survey, conducted by Hangil Research on July 3-4 with 1,004 respondents nationwide, showed that 52.7 percent opposed the relocation of the administrative capital to Chungchong Province. Its margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The ruling Uri Party is also trailing the opposition Grand National Party for the second month in a row. The GNP recorded a 29.5 percent approval rating, while Uri registered 27.1 percent.

The Uri Party received lower approval ratings in all age brackets while respondents in their 20s and 30s showed a larger preference for the GNP than seen in the past.

The conservative GNP also beat the liberal party with 27.7 to 27.6 percent in a survey conducted last month, marking the first reversal of the top ranking in approval ratings among the two largest parties since December.

``Though the gap of 2 percentage points is too small to have any significant meaning in political parties’ popularity, the reversed trend, which took five months to change, means a lot,’’ Shin Jung-sik, from Research & Research told The Korea Times.

Shin supported the current voice that the Uri Party is now engulfed in a substantial political crisis arising from a recent series of corruption scandals for the party who bases its raison d’etre on a high level of integrity and clean politics.

Kang Won-taek, professor at the department of political science and diplomacy of Soongsil University, also pointed out that the ruling party disappointed many supporters in recent scandals while the conservative GNP showed some departure from its past practices.

``The Uri Party failed to show its much-touted clean image and carry out any political reforms it pledged to implement in the April election period,’’ Kang said. ``But the GNP obviously changed, adopting a practical and mild line under the flag of its chairwoman Park Geun-hye.’’

The main opposition party now reasonably approaches national issues, instead of taking to the street just to oppose the ruling party and the government as it used to do, he added.

``The nation now judges the Uri Party with a very strict standard as the majority party. People think it should bear responsibility for the political fuss on controversial issues such as the relocation of the administrative capital,’’ he explained.

However, the professor said that the Uri Party’s popularity downgrade is natural and something to be expected in the middle of Roh’s administration period, as seen in the case of ruling parties in other countries.

``For the time being, the ruling party will likely remain in second place behind the GNP unless something extraordinary happens in the political sphere in favor of the Uri Party,’’ he added.

yoonwonsup@koreatimes.co.kr