Park behind Ahn, Moon in 2-way races By Kang Hyun-kyung Rep. Park Geun-hye is a frontrunner in a three-way race but is behind her two rivals in hypothetical two-way races with each of them, according to a survey published Wednesday. The Korea Times poll found that in a three-way race, the ruling Saenuri Party candidate received support of 36.3 percent, followed by independent Ahn Cheol-soo with 24.7 percent and Rep. Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) with 20.5 percent. The Korea Times, in collaboration with polling agency Hankook Research, conducted the survey on the occasion of the 62ndanniversary of the founding of the newspaper which falls today. It has a plus or minus 3.1 percentage points of a margin of error. The survey found that in a hypothetical two-way race, Park is behind Rep. Moon by a razor-thin margin of 1.1 percentage points. Support for Park was relatively high among female voters, elderly citizens aged 50 or older and residents of the eastern part of the country, namely North and South Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces. Moon scored relatively high support from male voters, people aged under 40 and people in the greater Seoul area. In a hypothetical two-way race between Park and independent Ahn, the software millionaire-turned-presidential candidate was ahead by 5.3 percentage points _ Park garnered 41.8 percent to Ahn’s 47.1 percent. Ahn received relatively wide support from male voters, people in their 20s and 30s and residents of the western part of the nation, such as South and North Jeolla Province. The region has long been viewed as a DUP stronghold. The latest survey found that voters want their next leader to put top priority on economic policy. Nearly four out of 10 respondents said economic growth is the number one task that the next government should focus on, followed by political reform and expanding the social safety net. Only 6.2 percent of respondents answered priority needs to be given to “economic democratization” by curbing conglomerates and corporate greed. This showed a big gap between politicians and voters in their perception of policy priorities. The economic democratization debate has dominated the three presidential camps and all three candidates have been in favor of layered regulations on conglomerates’ business practices. The poll found fatigue on a reciprocity-oriented North Korea policy, which the Lee Myung-bak government has pursued since February 2008. Some 55.5 percent of voters said the next government needs to expand inter-Korean cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, while 40.2 percent backed continuity of Lee’s North Korea policy in the next government. Under the incumbent leader, Mt. Geumgang tourism has been halted since July 2008 after a South Korean tourist was shot dead near the resort area while taking a walk early in the morning. The government also suspended food aid to the North. Before the Lee government, Seoul sent 400,000 tons of rice annually to the impoverished nation. North Korea’s sinking of the warship Cheonan near the maritime boundary in the West Sea in 2010 and artillery attacks on Yeonpyeong Island in 2011 led to the tightening of sanctions. Eight out of 10 voters said South Korea “must” achieve unification with the North.