President Moon's Approval Rating Barely Holds at 30%... Hits New Low Since Inauguration [Gallup]

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] A public opinion poll has revealed that President Moon Jae-in's positive job performance rating has fallen to its lowest point since his inauguration. It dropped 2 percentage points from the 32% announced on April 2, before the April 7 by-elections, ultimately falling to 30%.

According to a public opinion poll conducted by Gallup Korea from April 13 to 15 among 1,005 adults nationwide aged 18 and older, President Moon's positive job performance rating stood at 30%, marking the lowest since his inauguration. This figure is 2 percentage points lower than the previous survey released two weeks earlier. The negative rating rose by 4 percentage points during the same period, reaching 62%, the highest since his inauguration.

By age group, positive ratings were lower than negative ratings across all groups: 20s (27%), 30s (33%), 40s (41%), 50s (31%), and 60 and older (23%).

By political party support, 69% of Democratic Party supporters evaluated positively, while 94% of People Power Party supporters evaluated negatively. Among those without a current party affiliation, the negative rating also led (positive 15%, negative 68%).

Notably, there was a significant change among centrists by political orientation. In the first week of April before the by-elections (March 30?April 1), positive ratings among centrists were 32% and negative ratings were 60%. In the recent results, these figures shifted to 24% positive and 67% negative. Support rates were 53% among progressives and 16% among conservatives.

Among those who negatively evaluated job performance (615 respondents, open-ended responses), the reasons cited included 'real estate policy' (31%), 'lack of solutions for economic and livelihood issues' (9%), 'inadequate COVID-19 response' (8%), 'unfairness and double standards' (7%), 'personnel issues' (6%), 'arbitrary, one-sided, biased' (4%), 'lack of leadership and incompetence', 'overall inadequacy', and 'North Korea relations' (each 3%).

Party support stood at 31% for the Democratic Party, 30% for the People Power Party, 27% for those without party affiliation, 5% each for the Justice Party and the People Party, and 2% for the Open Democratic Party. Support for the People Power Party increased by 2 percentage points compared to two weeks ago, while the People Party decreased by 1 percentage point. Other parties showed little change compared to before the by-elections.

This survey was conducted using a random sampling method from a mobile phone RDD sample frame (including 15% landline RDD), with a response rate of 17% and a sampling error of ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Detailed information can be found on the Gallup Korea website or the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.