Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
POLL Korea divided: Polls show deep political polarization
This combination of photos shows an anti-government rally, left, at the National Assembly, and a gathering of President Yoon Suk Yeol's supporters at Gwanghwamun in central Seoul, Dec. 14. Yonhap
By Jung Min-ho
When former President Park Geun-hye was embroiled in a political crisis due to an influence-peddling scandal, which ultimately led to her impeachment by the National Assembly on Dec. 9, 2016, public opinion turned sharply against her leadership. Voters were widely unified in their disapproval, and her approval ratings plummeted to as low as 4 percent in some polls.
President Yoon Suk Yeol has not suffered the same levels of backlash despite his declaration of martial law, a far more serious violation of the law and the Constitution in the eyes of many. In major surveys, his approval rating never dropped below the 10 percent mark and it is now bouncing back to as high as over 30 percent after his impeachment by the National Assembly.
The Korea Times surveyed 1,000 people through Hankook Research and found that extreme political polarization may be one of the reasons.
When asked whether the Constitutional Court should uphold the impeachment motion against Yoon, 98 percent of supporters of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said the court should remove the president by upholding the impeachment, while 85 percent of supporters of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) said the court should dismiss it. Meanwhile, 100 percent of the minor liberal Rebuilding Korea Party’s supporters asserted that it should be upheld.
When asked whether they agree that Yoon committed treason by declaring and implementing emergency martial law on Dec. 3, 98 percent of DPK supporters said they believe he did, while 81 percent of PPP supporters said they do not. Among PPP supporters, only 12 percent agreed, while 2 percent gave no response.
Their perceptions about Yoon's job approval as president were also vastly divided.
When asked about his job performance, 93 percent of DPK supporters said he has done a “very poor” job, while the remaining 7 percent said he has done poorly. Not a single respondent from the group gave a positive assessment.
On the other hand, 30 percent of PPP supporters said he has done a “very good” job, while 44 percent of them said he has done a “good” job. Only 22 percent of them assessed his job performance negatively.
Experts say these results reflect the highly polarized state of the country’s politics, even more so than during Park’s impeachment crisis eight years ago. This polarization has been visibly demonstrated in Seoul, where tens of thousands of anti- and pro-Yoon rally-goers have filled the streets every weekend since the martial law debacle.
“Politicians of both major parties are to blame for this deep division, as many focus more on intensifying it for their political advantage rather than working together in order to provide actual solutions,” Cho Jin-man, a politics professor at Duksung Women’s University, told The Korea Times.
Cho believes that one of the main factors contributing to unity among PPP supporters is their shared sentiment against DPK leader Lee Jae-myung, as well as their collective experience of the aftermath following Park’s removal from office.
“I think many highly disapprove of Lee as a potential next leader. They also fear that, with the DPK holding a majority in the Assembly, if he takes power, liberals’ de facto political revenge under the guise of an anti-corruption campaign would be far more aggressive,” said the scholar.
The Korea Times commissioned the survey to gauge public sentiment. Hankook Research surveyed 1,000 adults in phone interviews on Thursday and Friday.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, with a credibility rate of 95 percent. Further details are available on the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission’s website.