A citizen wearing a sanitary glove receives a ballot on the second day of early voting for the presidential election in Seoul on March 5, 2022, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The perception gap between supporters of conservative and democratic parties about the performance of the South Korean presidency is growing to dangerous levels that may spark situations similar to the insurrections staged by supporters of Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol last year, a report showed Tuesday.
The Korea Institute of Public Administration reported Tuesday that the gap in the positive ratings of the South Korean presidency between conservative and progressive party supporters has been widening since the 1990s.
The gap difference reached a number of peaks during the Kim Young-sam administration (39 percentage-point difference), the Kim Dae-jung administration (48 percentage-point difference), the Roh Moo-hyun administration (62 percentage-point difference), the Lee Myung-bak administration (64 percentage-point difference), the Park Geun-hye administration (75 percentage-point difference) and the current Moon Jae-in administration (85 percentage-point difference).
The report said that the level of bipolarization of political party supporters has reached the levels of the Ronald Reagan administration in the U.S. in the early 1980s.
In a March 7 study, the gap in the positive ratings of president Moon between conservative and progressive party supporters stood at 79 percentage points, which was higher than the 78 percentage-point difference in the U.S. during the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The bipolarization of politics creates partisan stereotypes, obstructs legislative processes, encourages fervent supporters to spread fake news and undermines the democratic values of tolerance,” the report said.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
