More than 7 in 10 S. Koreans favor constitutional revision: poll

All News 14:51 July 16, 2017

SEOUL, July 16 (Yonhap) -- More than seven in 10 South Koreans support a constitutional revision, with most of them citing the need to make the decades-old basic law relevant to changes in today's society, a survey showed Sunday.

Regarding the government structure, some 46 percent preferred power sharing between the president and the prime minister while some 38 percent backed the current presidential system.

The survey, conducted by Hankook Research last week commissioned by the National Assembly Speaker's Office, asked 1,000 adults nationwide and found that 75.4 percent of them favored a constitutional revision, while 14.5 percent of respondents objected the idea.

Among those who opposed the revision, 44.8 percent pointed out that problems regarding the Constitution are related with use of the basic law, not the Constitution itself.

The survey founded that 72.8 percent of South Koreans believe that a constitutional revision will help improve the quality of their lives, while the correlation coefficient value between constitutional revision and life quality improvement was 0.62 -- with 1 referring to perfect positive correlation -- according to the National Assembly Speaker's office.

As for the question of preferred governing structure of the country, 46 percent of those polled said they want "mixed government" where the president and the prime minister both share the responsibility of running the nation, while 38.2 percent answered the presidential system, followed by 13 percent who supported adoption of a purely parliamentary cabinet system.

Among those who preferred mixed ruling of the country, 55.2 percent said the president should have more power, while 42.4 percent said the prime minister should be given more authority.

The survey also founded that 93.9 percent respondents want to see improvement in fundamental rights of the Constitution. They mentioned basic rights concerning safety, life, environment and health should be reinforced or established.

The survey showed 72 percent of South Koreans want "equal pay for equal work" written in the Constitution.