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Ahn Cheol-soo, founder of anti-virus software company AhnLab, has emerged as a frontrunner in the most recent survey of possible presidential bidders.
In a Hankook Ilbo poll released Friday, Rep. Park Geun-hye of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) was a close runner-up.
Support for Ahn was 49.7 percent, compared to 42.5 percent for Park.
The IT expert has yet to clarify whether he will run in the Dec. 19 presidential election, although there are growing signs that he will declare his intention to do so.
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The margin of error of the poll was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The results showed there was a shift in respondents’ selection of their favorite candidate from Rep. Park to Ahn. In September, Rep. Park, leader of GNP’s interim emergency leadership committee, topped the survey, followed by Ahn.
The survey showed that Ahn is popular among voters in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Seven out of 10 20-somethings backed Ahn. Park was popular among voters in their 50s and 60s.
In a hypothetical competition with Rep. Sohn Hak-kyu of the Democratic Unity Party and Moon Jae-in, a former chief of staff of the late President Roh Moo-hyun, Park was the front-runner by a wide margin.
Regarding North Korea, the survey found that six out of 10 respondents said the Lee Myung-bak government needs to soften its policy.
The results were a major contrast to those of 2010. The Hankook Ilbo poll taken in December of that year found that more respondents backed a hard-line North Korea policy. It was taken nearly a month after the North’s artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island, which killed four South Koreans.
Leadership transition is underway in the North after Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack in December. North Korean media called his successor, third son Jong-un, the “supreme commander.”
After the death of Kim who ruled the country for 37 years, analysts remained cautious about stability on the Korean Peninsula as the young and inexperienced Jong-un is “untested.”
