[AKYUNG Poll] Greater Expectations for Vaccines than for ROK-US Alliance and North Korean Nuclear Issue

Expected Outcomes from the Korea-US Summit
Young Adults in Their 20s Show Relatively High Expectations for Strengthening the Korea-US Alliance
President Moon's Job Performance Evaluation: Positive 36.8%, Negative 58.9%

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] In February last year, the daily number of new COVID-19 cases surpassed 900, reaching its peak. Afterward, the situation calmed down, and on April 14, the day before the general election, the number of confirmed cases was 27. Praise for 'K-Quarantine' from overseas followed. The ruling party achieved a landslide victory with 180 seats.

On the day of the by-elections held on the 7th of last month, the number of confirmed cases announced was 668, the highest in 89 days. The People Power Party won the Seoul mayoral and Busan mayoral elections by a wide margin over the ruling party.

Of course, issues such as real estate and fairness problems expressed as 'naeronambul' (double standards) are complexly intertwined, but there is no disagreement that the pain and fatigue caused by COVID-19 are weighing heavily on public sentiment. Ahead of the Korea-US summit scheduled for the 21st, a public opinion poll conducted by Asia Economy and WinG Korea Consulting on the 15th and 16th showed that expectations for 'establishing a partnership related to COVID-19 vaccines' were the highest at 45%. This was significantly higher than 'strengthening the Korea-US alliance system' (28.5%) and 'finding solutions to the North Korean nuclear issue' (19.2%).

Among female respondents, 49.9% answered that they most expected the establishment of a vaccine partnership, which was much higher than the 40.0% of male respondents. By age group, those in their 40s (47.6%) showed the greatest expectations. Notably, 36.1% of respondents aged 18-29 chose strengthening the Korea-US alliance, the highest response among all age groups. This can be seen as a sign of significant distrust in Korea-US relations.

Among supporters of the Democratic Party, 47.3% expected vaccine partnership achievements, whereas only 38.1% of People Power Party supporters did, with more expecting the strengthening of the Korea-US alliance (42.1%).

Although Korea was evaluated as a 'model country for COVID-19 response' last year, public sentiment worsened this year due to delays in vaccine introduction. Safety concerns regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine introduced by the government further deepened distrust. In this survey, negative evaluations of President Moon's job performance were 58.9%, with positive evaluations at 36.8%. In particular, 44.9% responded that he was 'doing very poorly.'

Negative evaluations were high in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk and Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam regions at 69.5% and 65.1%, respectively, and Seoul (61.0%) and Gyeonggi-Incheon (63.0%) showed no significant difference.

President Moon also cited vaccine procurement as one of the top priorities for this Korea-US summit. At a senior secretaries and advisors meeting held at the Blue House the day before, President Moon stated, "We will do our best to ensure thorough quarantine and carry out vaccinations without delay to bring forward the time for recovery of daily life even a little," adding, "We will strengthen vaccine cooperation and use this as an opportunity to become a global hub for vaccine production."

At the summit, it is expected that specific discussions will be held on resolving supply issues through 'vaccine swaps' and domestic vaccine production through technology transfer. Recently, the government announced that it has secured vaccines for 99 million people and aims to accelerate the vaccination speed to bring forward the originally planned herd immunity achievement date of November. In a special speech on the 4th anniversary of his inauguration on the 10th, President Moon said, "The end of the war against COVID-19 is beginning to be seen," and "We are accelerating vaccinations and approaching herd immunity."

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