49% of Citizens Say "US Should Win" in US-China Competition... 9% Say "China Should Win"

Unification Research Institute 'US-Korea Relations After US Presidential Election' Poll
90% "USFK Needed"... 50% "US-Korea Relations Worsening"
60% of Democratic Party Supporters "US Responsible for Worsening Relations"

Renminbi and Dollar prepared at the Hana Bank Counterfeit Response Center in Jung-gu, Seoul

In the new Cold War phase between the U.S. and China, half of the population prefers U.S. superiority, and 9 out of 10 people agree on the current necessity of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) presence.

According to the results of the "Public Opinion Survey on the Prospects of Korea-U.S. Relations after the U.S. Presidential Election" released on the 23rd by the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), 48.8% preferred U.S. superiority in the U.S.-China competition, while only 8.5% preferred Chinese superiority, showing an overwhelming difference.

Nine out of ten respondents answered that "the Korea-U.S. alliance is necessary." 90.2% agreed on the current necessity of the USFK presence. The public opinion supporting the Korea-U.S. alliance was generally consistent regardless of ideology or political party.

However, 38% of all respondents answered that "Korea-U.S. relations have deteriorated over the past year." The proportion of those who responded that relations improved during this period was only 7.4%.

Among those who said Korea-U.S. relations worsened, 50.3% attributed the responsibility for the deterioration to the United States. KINU analyzed that this was influenced by President Trump's pressure on defense cost-sharing and the breakdown of the Hanoi North Korea-U.S. summit in February last year.

In particular, among Democratic Party supporters, the proportion attributing responsibility to the U.S. (60.7%) was overwhelmingly higher than those blaming Korea (6.7%), which KINU said "shows consolidated support for the Moon Jae-in administration."

Additionally, half of the population believed that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden should hold a summit with North Korean State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un when there is substantial progress on the North Korean nuclear issue.

Regarding the resumption of North Korea-U.S. summits after Biden's inauguration in January next year, 52.9% of all respondents preferred resuming the summit "if conditions of substantial progress on the North Korean nuclear issue are met." Only 20.1% preferred resuming the summit "without any conditions."

Public opinion was generally positive about exchanges between the North Korea-U.S. leaders. 71.9% of all respondents positively evaluated the summits and correspondence between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un, and 68.3% of respondents supporting the People Power Party also evaluated the exchanges between the North Korea-U.S. leaders positively, KINU reported.

The opinions on whether the Biden administration should strengthen (19.3%) or ease (19.5%) sanctions against North Korea were evenly split.

This public opinion survey was conducted by KINU through Korea Research from the 10th of last month to the 3rd of this month, targeting 1,500 adults aged 18 and over nationwide.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.