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72 Pct. Say NK Caused Cheonan Sinking

Posted May. 22, 2010 08:26,   

한국어

More than 70 percent of South Koreans say they trust the joint investigation team`s conclusion that a North Korean torpedo sank the Cheonan.

The number of South Koreans opposed to a military response toward the North is more than twice as those supporting countermeasures.

The Dong-A Ilbo commissioned the Korea Research Center to survey 700 adults on the announcement of the joint investigation team Thursday to Friday.

According to the survey, 72 percent said the Cheonan incident was caused by North Korea as announced by the investigation team. Only 21.3 percent rejected the announcement.

On Seoul`s most desirable response, the number of respondents opposed to military countermeasures (59.3 percent) was double that supporting the idea (30.7 percent). On if South Korea should stop inter-Korean economic cooperation and close the Kaesong industrial complex, 46.1 percent said no and 42.8 percent said yes.

On government sanctions on North Korea via international cooperation such as referring the incident to the U.N. Security Council and imposing financial sanctions on Pyongyang, 75.9 percent were in favor and 15.2 percent opposed.

On wartime operational command slated for transfer from the U.S. to South Korea in 2012, 42.3 percent said it should be delayed and 9.3 percent wanted an annulment. Only 32.3 percent said they wanted the transfer to proceed.

In the survey, 60.6 percent showed a positive attitude toward President Lee Myung-bak`s response and crisis management capabilities, while 33 percent were negative.

The survey had a 95-percent confidence level and a margin of error of ±3.7 percentage points.



yongari@donga.com