
Recent polls showed support ratings for the ruling party have recovered to what they were before martial law, with one indicating that the party has narrowed the gap with the main opposition party to just 1.4 percentage point.
According to a Realmeter poll released Monday, 40.8 percent of South Korean adults with voting rights favored the People Power Party during the polling period of Thursday and Friday. The figure was up 6.4 percentage points in a week.
This put the ruling party narrowly behind the Democratic Party of Korea's 42.2 percent. It was the first poll since September to put the difference in support between the two main parties within the margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
The same poll indicated that those in favor of a transition of power to an opposition figure fell 5.6 percentage points to 52.9 percent, whereas those who supported the ruling party in the driver's seat climbed 6.4 percentage points to 41.2 percent, both compared to a week earlier.
In response to the poll outcome, Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, floor leader of the ruling People Power Party, said Monday in a party meeting the party should not mistakenly take the result as a compliment.
"Instead, supporters are expressing their dissatisfaction, calling on us to gather strength and steer the country in the right direction," Kweon said, urging party members to stay humble.
This followed a similar estimate by Gallup Korea released Friday.
The Gallup poll showed 34 percent of all 1,004 respondents favored the ruling party in the second week of January, up 10 percentage points from the previous week. This put the ruling party's popularity at its highest point since August. On the other hand, the main opposition party's popularity sank 12 percentage points to 36 percent in a week.
According to Gallup Korea, the result reflects "dampened expectations of the moderates and progressives who supported the main opposition party, while conservatives raised alarms about the potential transition of power," as the level of support to rival parties returned to what it was before Yoon's martial law declaration.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, a conservative figure, said in an interview with broadcaster Channel A on Monday that the poll reflects the view that the Democratic Party does not deserve the power to govern the country.
"(The Democratic Party) blames fake news for their fall in its favorability ratings," Oh said. "That's an incorrect analysis, and subsequently, they are taking the wrong countermeasures, and this aggravates people's concerns."
This was an apparent reference to Democratic Party Rep. Jo Seoung-lae's remarks Friday that fake news pushing conspiracy theories about conservatives' defeat in the election was behind the rising support for conservatives.
On the same day, Democratic Party Rep. Jeon Yong-gi said he would accuse ordinary people of their involvement in insurrection allegations if they circulated fake news online.
This prompted the ruling party to say that the opposition-led move to let a special counsel look into Yoon's insurrection allegation through a new bill would also allow investigators to screen ordinary people's private conversations on messaging services.
Rep. Park Beom-kye of the Democratic Party, however, said in a radio interview Monday that the party's favorability rating does not necessarily reflect the reality in politics.
Throughout the campaigning period for the last general election in April, the People Power Party had an edge over the Democratic Party in the polls, but the main opposition clinched a landslide victory, Park pointed out.
"This is not something that causes mood swings," Park said.