Background

• The Asan Institute for Policy Studies (Director: HAHM Chaibong) conducted a public opinion poll on Saturday, November 27, 2010, in the immediate aftermath of North Korea’s deadly artillery attack on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island on November 23. The main purpose of this poll is to track any changes in job approval ratings of President Lee Myung-bak that may be attributed to this artillery attack and North Korea’s recent revelation of its uranium enrichment facility. It is to be noted that President Lee’s job approval ratings had been on the rise recently following South Korea’s successful hosting of the G-20 summit. This poll investigates South Korea’s public opinion regarding the Lee administration’s handling of the latest crisis and the administration’s subsequent policy responses.

• Another goal of this ASAN poll is to determine whether there has been a surge in the public support of President Lee following this latest crisis, the first direct attack on South Korean territory by North Korean artillery since the Korean War, similar to the jump in the U.S. public approval rating of the then-President George W. Bush in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attack, a phenomenon known as “the rally around the flag effect” that occurs when a national crisis leads to the U.S. public rallying around the President.

Methodology

• This ASAN poll was conducted from 10:10 AM to 9:10 PM on November 27, 2010, in the form of a nationwide telephone survey of 1,000 respondents over the age of 19. The poll result has a 95% reliability, and the margin of sampling error is +/- 3.1%. The fieldwork for the poll was conducted by Research & Research, and the stratified quota sampling method was used.