KSOI "President Yoon's Negative Approval Rating on State Affairs 70.1%"

Approval Rating for Government Performance Drops Further
Sharp Decline Among 30s and 40s Age Groups

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] President Yoon Seok-yeol's approval rating for his national administration has further declined compared to last week after returning from a one-week vacation. Notably, a public opinion poll showed that negative evaluations exceeded 70%.

According to a public opinion poll conducted by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) commissioned by TBS Broadcasting (conducted on the 5th-6th with 1,002 adults aged 18 and over nationwide, using ARS method), the evaluation of President Yoon's national administration showed a positive rating of 27.5% (13.7% very well, 13.8% generally well) and a negative rating of 70.1% (7.5% generally poorly, 62.6% very poorly). The positive rating dropped by 1.4 percentage points compared to last week's survey, while the negative rating rose by 1.6 percentage points.

Thus, the gap between positive and negative evaluations widened to 42.6 percentage points.

In this survey, negative evaluations were high among those in their 30s (79.2%) and 40s (82.1%), residents of Gwangju and Jeolla regions (88.7%), white-collar workers (74.6%), and progressive-leaning groups (95.6%). In particular, the increase was significant among women at 64.4% (up 5.9 percentage points), people in their 30s at 72.6% (up 13.7 percentage points), Daegu and Gyeongbuk residents at 49.4% (up 10.3 percentage points), self-employed at 63.0% (up 14.3 percentage points), centrist groups at 65.9% (up 9.2 percentage points), and the politically indifferent at 71.7% (up 6.9 percentage points).

Regarding President Yoon’s decision not to meet U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who visited Korea during his vacation, 60.3% of respondents considered it inappropriate as it did not align with national interests. Meanwhile, 26.0% viewed it as appropriate considering national interests. On the controversy over the admission of 5-year-old elementary school students, 76.8% opposed it, while 17.4% supported it.

Meanwhile, in party support ratings, the Democratic Party of Korea stood at 36.8%, and the People Power Party at 31.3%. The Democratic Party’s support dropped by 6.7 percentage points, and the People Power Party’s by 2.5 percentage points compared to the previous survey.