[PollPoll News] President Lee's Approval Drops by 8 Points... Surpasses Yoon Administration in Vision Indicators Like Democracy

Approval Rating Plummets from 65% to 57% in Two Weeks
Negative Evaluation Rises by 9 Points to 33%
Democratic Party Support Stands at 40%

President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating for his handling of state affairs has shown a noticeable decline. However, compared to the previous administration under Yoon Suk-yeol, indicators related to national vision and values have generally shown significant improvement.

According to the National Barometer Survey (NBS), conducted by Embrain Public, KSTAT Research, Korea Research, and Hankook Research from August 18 to 20 among 1,001 men and women aged 18 and older nationwide via mobile phone interviews (with a margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level and a response rate of 14.2%), the positive evaluation (very good + somewhat good) of President Lee's performance dropped by 8 percentage points from two weeks ago to 57%. The negative evaluation (very poor + somewhat poor) rose by 9 percentage points to 33%. Non-responses accounted for 9%.

President Lee Jae-myung is taking notes during an economic briefing with business leaders from the US and Japan at the Yongsan Presidential Office building in Seoul on the 19th. Photo by Yonhap News

President Lee's approval rating for state affairs, which was 53% at the beginning of his term and remained in the low to mid-60% range, showed a marked decline in this survey.

In the assessment of the government's vision and values, the current administration demonstrated a clear improvement compared to the previous Yoon Suk-yeol administration. The survey found that 58% believe "democracy is advancing," 56% say "the country is heading in the right direction," 54% feel "the Korean Peninsula is becoming more peaceful and secure," 53% agree that "the values of fairness and common sense are being well realized," and 48% think "the economy is stabilizing and improving." These indicators all surpass the results from four previous surveys conducted during the Yoon administration.

In terms of party support, the Democratic Party of Korea recorded a 4 percentage point drop from last week to 40%. The People Power Party rose by 3 percentage points to 19%.

Regarding the job performance of Democratic Party leader Jung Chungrae, 45% responded positively, while 37% responded negatively. For Song Eon-seok, interim leader and floor leader of the People Power Party, 20% gave a positive evaluation (very good + somewhat good) of his performance as party leader, while 56% gave a negative evaluation (very poor + somewhat poor).

In the survey on suitability for the next People Power Party leader, candidate Cho Kyungtae received 20%, Kim Moonsoo 14%, Ahn Cheolsoo 11%, and Jang Donghyuk 11%. However, among People Power Party supporters only, Jang received 33%, Kim 30%, Ahn 8%, and Cho 7%.

Regarding the composition of the 8·15 special pardon and reinstatement recipients, 38% gave a positive evaluation (very appropriate + generally appropriate), while 54% gave a negative evaluation (not at all appropriate + not very appropriate). On the proposal to lower the capital gains tax threshold for stock transfers to 1 billion won, 43% were in favor and 46% were opposed.

For more details on the public opinion poll, refer to the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.