Former prosecutor general leads opinion poll

SEOUL, March 28 (Yonhap) -- Yoon Seok-youl, a former prosecutor general who recently resigned from the post over a prosecutorial reform drive, ranked first in a survey of who is fit to become South Korea's next president.

In the survey conducted on 1,001 eligible voters by Ipsos, an opinion research firm, Yoon came first with a public support rate of 26.8 percent.

He, however, was closely followed by Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung with 25.6 percent, which was within a margin of error.

Lee Nak-yon, a former chief of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and currently co-chair of the party's election committee for the April 7 Seoul mayoral by-election, came third with a support rate of 14.6 percent.

Yoon resigned from the top prosecutorial post in early March in protest of the Moon administration's prosecution reform drive.

The ex-prosecutor has led in several recent polls on who is fit to become the next president. South Korea is to hold the presidential election in March next year.

Asked about which area the next government should address first, 44 percent of those polled cited real estate-related measures, apparently reflecting a public uproar over skyrocketing home prices and a real estate speculation scandal allegedly involving officials of the state housing corporation.

Prosecutorial reform came next with 12.4 percent saying so, followed by income-led growth, and North Korea and other diplomatic issues with 10 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
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