South Korea’s President Park Geun Hye’s Aprroval Rating Increases This Year After Agreeing with North Korea

A poll showed an increase in the approval rating of South Korea’s President Park Geun Hye to almost 50 percent this year, after the country reached a mutual agreement with North Korea that calmed down military tensions.

An article by Yonhap News last Monday reported that the Realmeter polling agency released a result of 49.2 percent on the approval of people in Park’s job performance – increasing by 8.2 percentage points from the past week’s result. On the other hand, those who were not satisfied with Park’s performance was rated at 45.4 percent – an 8.8 percentage points decrease from the past week’s result.

Meanwhile, in last week’s poll by another polling agency Gallop Korea, Park received an approval rating of 49 percent, which was 15 percentage points higher from the past week’s rating. The increase in the South Korean president’s rating was attributed to the agreement established by South and North Korea on Tuesday that allowed families to finally reunite after being separated since the Korean War in 1950-1953. Although the agreement was not a peace treaty between the two countries, the military cease-fire was a big moment for the Koreas.

“During the time of tension between North and South Korea, President Park clearly positioned herself as the ‘commander in chief,” said the public opinion analysis center's director, Yun Hui Ung. “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,” according to a report last weekend by The Hankyoreh.

The poll also showed 24.7 percent of the participants supported chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party Kim Moo Sung in a possible race for presidency. Head of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy Moon Jae In received 13.5 percent of support, while Seoul Mayor Park Won Soon received 15.9 percent. The survey had 2,500 adult participants from Aug. 24-24 with a plus or minus 2 percentage points margin of error.