Roh and party troubled by slip in opinion polls

Are the Millennium Democratic Party and its presidential nominee Roh Moo-hyun in trouble?

Despite a surge in Mr. Roh's popularity during the party primaries, party insiders say the December presidential election may prove to be a tougher battle than they originally thought.

"In the past, when the party's presidential nominee was selected, we saw a rise in popularity both for the party and the nominee. But this time, we are seeing the reverse," said a second-term MDP lawmaker who asked not to be named.

A survey conducted by the Hankook Ilbo on Sunday on 1,000 potential voters showed Mr. Roh leading the likely opposition candidate by just 8 percentage points. Almost 45 percent of the respondents said they would vote for Mr. Roh while nearly 37 percent said they would vote for Representative Lee Hoi-chang of the main opposition Grand National Party. In a survey conducted April 15 by the JoongAng Ilbo, Mr. Roh led Mr. Lee by almost 30 percentage points. Party insiders said the decline is too steep to ignore.

Some critics blamed Mr. Roh's actions after his nomination April 27 for his sagging popularity. According to the Hankook Ilbo survey, 60.8 percent of the respondents said Mr. Roh should not have visited former President Kim Young-sam last week.

Mr. Roh has also been criticized for asking the head of the eastern branch office of the Busan District Prosecutors Office to meet with Lee Sang-yeol, a party leader in Busan. Mr. Lee reportedly asked the prosecutor to go easy on a party member who complained about investigations of charges that a bar he owns was in violation of several regulations.

Mr. Roh said he contacted the prosecutor because Mr. Lee said "he was chagrined about the false accusations" against the other party member.

by Kim Chong-hyuk