President Moon's Approval Rating at 40%... Nearing Lowest Since Inauguration [Gallup]

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] President Moon Jae-in's approval rating for his administration dropped to 40%, marking the lowest point since mid-August.

According to a public opinion poll conducted by Gallup Korea from the 24th to the 26th among 1,005 adults aged 18 and older, 40% of respondents gave a positive evaluation of President Moon's job performance, the organization announced on the 27th. This figure is down 4 percentage points from the previous week. On the other hand, negative evaluations rose by 3 percentage points to 48%.

The lowest approval rating since President Moon took office was 39%, recorded twice: once in October last year during the Cho Kuk incident, and again in August when public opinion worsened over real estate issues. The current rating differs by only 1 percentage point from those times.

The reasons for positive evaluations were ▲'Response to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19)' (35%) ▲'Generally doing well' ▲'Doing their best / working hard' (both 6%) ▲'Diplomacy / international relations' (5%) ▲'Efforts for ordinary citizens' (4%) ▲'Better than the previous administration' (3%) in that order.

The reasons for negative evaluations included ▲Real estate policy (26%) ▲Personnel issues ▲Lack of solutions to economic and livelihood problems (both 10%) ▲Generally insufficient (7%) ▲Silence / neglect regarding the prosecution and Ministry of Justice conflict ▲Autocratic / unilateral / biased (all 5%) ▲Inadequate COVID-19 response (4%) ▲Lack of leadership / incompetence (3%).

Notably, among the reasons for negative evaluations, real estate issues have consistently ranked first since Chuseok, and the reason 'silence / neglect regarding the prosecution and Ministry of Justice conflict' was newly added.

Party support was surveyed as follows: the Democratic Party of Korea 36%, People Power Party 22%, Justice Party 5%, and both the People’s Party and Open Democratic Party at 3% each. The Democratic Party dropped by 1 percentage point from the previous week, while the People Power Party rose by 3 percentage points.

This survey contacted 6,087 adults nationwide aged 18 and older, with a final 1,005 respondents completing the survey, resulting in a 17% response rate. The sampling error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For more details, refer to the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.