Date

February 24, 2014

Page

2

Contact

(Ms.)Ms Heesun Kim

Office

02-3701-7387

E-mail

communications@asaninst.org

* For Immediate Release

Asan Issue Brief:

Evaluating President Park Geun-Hye’s Foreign Policy in its 1st Year

The Asan Institute for Policy Studies will release an issue brief evaluating President Park Geun-hye’s first year foreign policy.

President Park Geun-hye has enjoyed a steady approval rating (over 50%) during her first year in office.

According to the Asan Institute’s daily poll, conducted by the Center for Public Opinion and Quantitative Research, 67.7% of respondents indicated that they support President Park’s foreign policy while 47.8% of them said the same about her domestic policy.

27% of respondents identified ‘sales diplomacy,’ as her signature policy, which in fact, is a policy most associated with former-President Lee Myung-bak.

Only 17% and 15%, respectively, correctly identified ‘Trust-building Process on the Korean Peninsula’ and the ‘Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative’ as her signature policy. 33% of respondents answered that they ‘did not know’ the specifics of her foreign policy.

The numbers indicate President Park’s failure to differentiate her foreign policy from her predecessor’s.

‘Trust-building Process on the Korean Peninsula’ left the North Korea security issues unaddressed. ‘The Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative’ was criticized for its miscalculation of the political atmosphere in Northeast Asia.

Overall, it is difficult to label President Park’s foreign policy in 2013 a success.

However, high-level meetings between the two Koreas, family reunions, possible resumption of the Six-Party Talks, and President Obama’s visit to Seoul in April all point to a better second year for President Park’s foreign policy.

*The sample size of survey was 1,000 respondents over the age of 19. The survey was conducted by Research & Research, and the margin of error is ±3.1% at the 95% confidence level. The survey employed the Random Digit Dialing method for mobile and landline telephones. This particular poll was conducted on Feb. 4-6, 2014.