A majority of citizens approve of Lee Myung Bak\u2019s \u201creciprocity\u201d policy towards North Korea.<\/p>\n
On the 31st of January, Heraldbiz released the results of a public opinion poll carried out in conjunction with KM Research Institute on the 29~30th. According to the poll, 74.5% of total survey respondents said that they \u201capproved\u201d of the \u201cpolicy of reciprocity towards North Korea,\u201d 14.6% said they, \u201cdisapproved\u201d and 10.9% said, \u201cthey did not know.\u201d <\/p>\n
The number of males (77.8%) who said they \u201capproved\u201d were slightly higher than the number of females (71.4%). In addition, 72.5% of those in their 20s, 80.1% of those in their 40s, and 73.8% of those over 60 showed equal rates of approval regardless of gender or age. <\/p>\n
These results can be interpreted as a sign of distrust in the Roh Moo Hyun administration\u2019s \u201cSunshine Policy,\u201d which was endlessly criticized for \u201cspoon feeding\u201d the North despite its nuclear development. In contrast, the administration\u2019s \u201cVision 3000: Denuclearization and Openness,\u201d which proposes to send aid to the North only upon the fulfillment of denuclearization, has received positive feedback. <\/p>\n
Regionally, approval in the Kyungnam region (90.9%), which also highly approved of President-elect Lee Myung Bak during the elections, trumped all other regions. But the Gwangju region, the home turf of former President Kim Dae Jung who is the original framer of the Sunshine Policy, showed a 57.1% approval rate and a 32.1% disapproval rate.<\/p>\n
Simultaneously, related to the presidential transition team\u2019s \u201cmerger and abolition of the Unification Ministry,\u201d 52.7% of respondents \u201capproved\u201d and only 25.6% \u201cdisapproved.\u201d This can be seen as the general consensus of the citizens and their criticism of \u201cspoon feeding\u201d these last 10 years.<\/p>\n
In particular, the upper age groups in their 40s (58.7%), 50s (54.7%), and 60s (55.9%), compared to those in their 20s (42%) and 30s (49%), showed a stronger conservative inclination. Those in their prime exhibited the highest approval rate for the abolition of the Ministry. The disapproval rate in the South Jeolla and Kangwon regions were relatively high. <\/p>\n
The survey was conducted through phone interviews of 907 adult male and female respondents over January 29~30th. The margin of error, based on a 95% standard of confidence, was \u00b13.3% points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A majority of citizens approve of Lee Myung Bak\u2019s \u201creciprocity\u201d policy towards North Korea. On the 31st of January, Heraldbiz released the results of a public opinion poll carried out in conjunction with KM Research Institute on the 29~30th. According to the poll, 74.5% of total survey respondents said that they \u201capproved\u201d of the \u201cpolicy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":6042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n