Kim Jong Il: A Bounce in the Polls?

Sometimes, I suspect that the South Korean press would declare a “watershed” if Kim Jong Il flushed a urinal:

A poll conducted on Thursday by the JoongAng Ilbo found that South Korean politicians and the public have a more favorable perception of North Korea following this week’s joint inter-Korean Liberation Day celebrations, which took place in Seoul.

The paper conducted a nationwide telephone survey of 811 men and women over 20 years of age. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.4 percentage points with a confidence level of 95 percent.

About 40 percent of those polled said their image of North Korea has changed positively after this week’s events, while only 3 percent said their thinking was negatively affected. The rest said there was no change in their image of North Korea.

That said, read the whole story before you evaluate this as significant. I suspect that most of those who said their image had changed positively already had a fairly positive image. Some of the other results reflect a greater wariness–for example, 63% also said that the South “provided excessively favorable treatment to the North Korean visitors.” Not sure how I call this one; make up your own mind.