President Moon's approval rating plunges to low 40% range... 'Impact of COVID-19' [Gallup]

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] A public opinion poll revealed that President Moon Jae-in's approval rating for his national administration has fallen to the low 40% range. This is analyzed to reflect social anxiety due to the rapid increase in confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

Korea Gallup announced on the 28th that, as a result of a public opinion survey conducted from the 25th to the 27th targeting 1,001 people aged 18 and over, 42% of respondents gave a positive evaluation of President Moon's job performance. This is a 3 percentage point drop compared to the previous week. On the other hand, negative evaluations rose by 5 percentage points to 51%.

By age group, the positive/negative rates were 44%/50% for ages 18-29 (hereafter '20s'), 54%/42% for 30s, 48%/46% for 40s, 41%/54% for 50s, and 31%/60% for those 60 and older.

By political party support, 81% of the Democratic Party supporters and 64% of the Justice Party supporters positively evaluated the president's job performance, but 93% of the United Future Party supporters were negative, and among those without party affiliation (no party), negative views were also more prevalent.

When asked the reasons for positive evaluation from those who approved of the president's job performance (424 people), the responses were 'COVID-19 response' (30%), 'doing their best/working hard' (11%), 'doing well overall' (7%), 'expanding welfare' (5%), 'diplomacy/international relations' (4%), followed by 'better than previous administrations,' 'faithful to basics/principled/fair,' 'considering the people's position,' and 'communication' (all 3%).

Reasons for negative evaluation (514 people) included 'inadequate COVID-19 response' (41%), 'lack of solutions to economic and livelihood issues' (14%), 'generally insufficient' (10%), 'diplomatic issues' (7%), and 'arbitrary/one-sided/biased' (3%).

Notably, criticism related to COVID-19 increased significantly compared to last week, becoming the top reason for negative evaluation this week. This appears to be due to social confusion and anxiety intensifying as confirmed cases surged over the past weekend.

President Moon's national administration approval rating is closely linked to the government's response to COVID-19. In a public opinion survey regarding the government's COVID-19 response, 41% of respondents evaluated it as 'doing well,' while 51% said 'doing poorly.' This closely matches the positive and negative evaluations of the national administration.

Regarding party support, the Democratic Party stood at 37%, the United Future Party at 21%, the Justice Party at 6%, the People's Party at 2%, and the Minsheng Party at 1%. Other parties and organizations were all below 1%. Compared to the previous week, the Democratic Party rose by 1 percentage point, while the United Future Party and the Justice Party fell by 2 and 1 percentage points, respectively.

This survey contacted 6,614 adult men and women nationwide aged 18 and over, with a final 1,001 respondents completing the survey, recording a 15% response rate. The sampling error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For more details, refer to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.