Anchor: While the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented many families from gathering this Chuseok thanksgiving holiday, it hasn’t stopped people from discussing the political controversies of the day during the long celebration. KBS has taken a poll to examine where public sentiment is trending, including how South Korean citizens evaluate President Moon Jae-in’s job performance and who they prefer to succeed him as the nation’s chief executive.
Robert Koehler has the report.

Report: In a recently concluded KBS poll, a slight plurality of respondents said President Moon Jae-in is doing a poor job in office.

Some 48-point-six percent faulted Moon’s job performance, while 47 percent approved.

Though a majority of respondents positively evaluated the president’s performance as recently as the third week in August, the administration’s approval ratings have been falling since September. 

KBS also asked respondents which of ten candidates would make the best next president.

Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung and ruling Democratic Party chairperson Lee Nak-yon received 26-point-two percent and 21-point-six percent, respectively, accounting for nearly half of total responses.

Among Democratic Party supporters, Lee Nak-yon was the preferred candidate with 43-point-five percent against Lee Jae-myung’s 39-point-five percent, though this was within the margin of error.
 
Other potential candidates such as Hong Joon-pyo, Ahn Cheol-soo, Oh Se-hoon, Hwang Kyo-ahn and Yoo Seong-min received less than ten percent each.

However, nearly one in four respondents expressed support for none of the candidates, while six-point-eight percent said they didn’t know who to pick.

Similarly, while support for the ruling Democratic Party stood at 31-point-seven percent against 20-point-six percent for the main opposition People Power Party, 37 percent of respondents said they supported no political party.

Regarding ongoing political issues, 68-point-six percent of respondents said the government is badly handling the recent shooting of a South Korean fisheries official by North Korean military personnel.

Only 21-point-eight percent said authorities are handling it well.

Perhaps because of the incident, 54-point-nine percent negatively evaluated the Moon administration’s North Korea policy.

However, a slight plurality of respondents -- 44-point-four percent -- felt inter-Korean relations would improve, opposed to 41-point-five percent who said they would deteriorate

The slight optimism has been attributed to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s apology for the shooting.

The poll was commissioned by KBS and conducted by KSTAT Research for three days beginning September 26 on one-thousand-and-one adults nationwide. 

The survey had a 95 percent confidence level with a margin of error of plus or minus three-point-one percentage points.
Robert Koehler, KBS World Radio News