The poll of America's image in Korea provides some insight: The U.S. fall from grace, it appears, can be traced to George W. Bush's ascent to the presidency. Americans overall received a positive response from 65 percent of the Koreans surveyed and 47 percent favorably viewed John Kerry, but 72 percent had negative feelings toward Bush. Also 68 percent of respondents said they hoped for Kerry's victory while only 18 percent hoped for Bush's. The poll revealed that Koreans make a critical distinction between the state and the people: 65 percent of those surveyed said they felt friendly toward Americans, but 67 percent said they felt unfriendly toward the country.
Bush's unpopularity with Koreans may be attributed in part to his inclusion of North Korea in the "axis of evil" along with Iraq and Iran; to his failure to produce a comprehensive North Korean policy while pursuing a one-sided policy focusing on the nuclear issue; and to his refusal to conduct direct talks with North Korea. All of these issues have likely angered younger Koreans, who tend to view North Koreans as brothers. Indeed, 47 percent of respondents over 50 said they had an unfavorable view of the U.S. - compared with 70 percent of those in their 20s to 40s.
Two observations can be drawn from the poll. First, 93 percent of the respondents said they believe in preserving good Korea-U.S. relations, and 67 percent said the state of current relations is worrisome. This implies that Koreans tend to approach relations from a realistic stance, rather than through the prism of reckless anti-Americanism or emotional nationalism.
Second, the poll indicates that Koreans' general knowledge of the U.S. is staggeringly low: 87 percent said they had never been to the U.S., 70 percent do not read American periodicals, and 53 percent confessed to total or near-total ignorance of the U.S. But if a poll were taken of Americans' familiarity with Korea, it would also likely yield unencouraging results.
Young Hie Kim is a senior columnist for JoongAng Ilbo. Considered South Korea's leading newspaper, it has a distribution of 2 million. The survey was conducted on October 4-5 and has a sampling error of 3.1 percent. |
