[Polpol News] President Lee's Approval Rating Drops by 5%p... Pressure on Cho Heedae Appears to Be a Negative Factor

Gallup Poll Results
President Lee's Approval Rating at 55%
Split Opinions on Special Court for Rebellion Cases: 41% in Favor of Current Court vs. 38% for New Court

President Lee Jaemyung's approval rating for his administration has declined. Despite his diplomatic visit to the United States, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's pressure on Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Heedae to resign appears to have negatively impacted his support.

According to a public opinion poll released by Gallup on the 26th (conducted from the 23rd to the 25th through wireless phone interviews with 1,002 people nationwide aged 18 and older; margin of error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level; response rate is 11.4%), the positive evaluation of President Lee's job performance was 55%, down 5 percentage points from last week. The negative evaluation was 34%, up 3 percentage points.

Yonhap News

Among those who gave a positive evaluation (550 people), 20% cited diplomacy and 15% cited the economy and people's livelihoods as reasons. In contrast, among those who gave a negative evaluation (344 people), 14% pointed to diplomacy and 11% cited dictatorship and arbitrariness. Notably, pressure on the Supreme Court Chief Justice to resign and destabilization of the judiciary were newly added as reasons for negative evaluation (5%). The Democratic Party of Korea's pressure on the judiciary has also affected President Lee's approval rating.

Gallup explained, "Judging from the reasons for negative evaluations, it appears that issues led by the ruling party, such as pressure on Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Heedae to resign, disputes over the truth, and changes to the court handling the rebellion case, have been reflected in the president's evaluation." The Democratic Party of Korea's approval rating also fell by 3 percentage points, from 41% to 38%. The People Power Party's approval rating remained unchanged from last week at 24%.

Regarding the December 3 Martial Law and Rebellion Allegations, and the Democratic Party of Korea's call for a dedicated court for rebellion cases, 41% of respondents said the trial should proceed with the current court. Meanwhile, 38% supported transferring the case to a newly established dedicated court for rebellion.

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