[Polpol News] President Lee Jaemyung’s Approval Rating at 55%... Democratic Party 40%, People Power Party 26%

“Communication” Tops Reasons for Positive Assessment

A public opinion poll released on December 19 showed that President Lee Jaemyung’s approval rating for state affairs recorded 55%.

President Lee Jae-myung is speaking at the Ministry of Industry, Intellectual Property Office, and Ministry of SMEs and Startups briefing held at the Government Sejong Convention Center on the 17th. Photo by Yonhap News

According to a job performance evaluation of President Lee conducted by Gallup Korea from December 16 to 18 among 1,001 voters aged 18 and older nationwide, 55% of respondents said he was “doing well.” This figure is down 1 percentage point from the previous week.

The share of respondents who said he was “doing poorly” was 36%, up 2 percentage points from the previous week, while those who were “undecided” remained unchanged at 9%.

The most frequently cited reason for a positive assessment of President Lee’s job performance was “communication, cabinet meetings, and work briefings,” at 18%.

This was followed by “diplomacy” (15%), “economy and people’s livelihoods” (11%), “job competence and capability,” and “overall good performance” (each at 10%).

The main reasons for negative evaluations were “economy and people’s livelihoods” (18%), “issues of morality and evasion of personal trial” (11%), “dictatorship and arbitrariness,” and “overall poor performance” (each at 7%).

Gallup Korea commented, “The fact that communication has overtaken diplomacy as the top reason for positive evaluations is presumed to be due to the live broadcasts of work briefings by each ministry,” adding, “For negative evaluations, a range of domestic issues including the economy, judiciary, and security were cited.”

Party support stood at 40% for the Democratic Party of Korea, 26% for the People Power Party, 4% for the Reform Party, 3% for the Cho Kuk Innovation Party, 1% for the Progressive Party, 1% for other parties and organizations, and 26% for those with no party affiliation.

This survey was conducted via interviews by telephone surveyors using randomly generated virtual mobile phone numbers. The margin of error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with a contact rate of 49.8% and a response rate of 10.8%.

For further details, please refer to the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.