'Civil War-Level' Political Conflict, Crisis Felt Regardless of Political Orientation... 96% Say It's Serious [Polpol News]

National Barometer Survey Poll
Consensus Across Generations and Political Leanings on Severity of Political Conflict

The public judged the level of political conflict in our country to be extremely severe. They were also skeptical about the possibility of national unity under the next president.

According to the National Barometer Survey (NBS) conducted from the 17th to the 19th by Embrain Public, K-Stat Research, Korea Research, and Hankook Research (a telephone interview survey of 1,000 men and women aged 18 and over nationwide using mobile phones, with a sampling error of ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, and a response rate of 19.8%), 96% of respondents viewed the level of political conflict in our country as "serious." Those who thought it was "very serious" accounted for 69%. The view that it was "not serious" was only 3% (with 1% saying "not serious at all").

The on-site investigation of the "Special Committee for the National Investigation into the Alleged Insurrection Charges through the Declaration of Martial Law by the Yoon Seok-yeol Administration" was held on the 5th at Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang-si, Gyeonggi-do, where anti-impeachment protesters are demonstrating. 2025.2.5 Photo by the National Assembly Press Photographers Group

Regarding the perception that political conflict is serious, there was consensus across generations, regions, political party support, and ideological tendencies. Each detailed demographic category showed over 90% agreement.

More negative opinions were expressed about the prospects for resolving the conflict. Regarding whether the next president can resolve the current political conflict and lead national unity, 50% responded that it would be difficult to achieve national unity because political conflict would not be resolved. Meanwhile, 42% believed that political conflict could be resolved and national unity achieved.

In this survey, 66% of Democratic Party supporters were hopeful about the possibility of national unity, whereas 58% of People Power Party supporters predicted that national unity would be difficult.

Regarding suitability as a candidate for the next presidential election, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, led with 31%. Following him were Kim Moon-soo, Minister of Employment and Labor (10%), Oh Se-hoon, Mayor of Seoul (8%), Hong Joon-pyo, Mayor of Daegu (5%), Han Dong-hoon, former leader of the People Power Party (5%), Yoo Seung-min, former lawmaker (2%), Lee Jun-seok, lawmaker of the Reform New Party (2%), Ahn Cheol-soo, People Power Party lawmaker (2%), Woo Won-shik, Speaker of the National Assembly (1%), Kim Dong-yeon, Governor of Gyeonggi Province (1%), Kim Boo-kyum, former Prime Minister (1%), and Kim Kyung-soo, former Governor of Gyeongnam Province (1%).

Regarding the nature of the next presidential election, 40% supported the theory of regime continuation, while 49% supported regime change.

Party support rates showed the People Power Party maintaining 37%, the same as last week, while the Democratic Party dropped 2 percentage points to 34%.

Regarding the job performance of major party leaders, Lee Jae-myung received a positive evaluation of 45% (negative evaluation 50%). Kwon Young-se, emergency committee chairman of the People Power Party, received a positive evaluation of 23% (negative evaluation 67%).

For more details, please refer to the website of the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission.