President Lee Jae-myung's Approval Rating Drops Below 60% for First Time in 8 Weeks

A public opinion poll shows President Lee Jae-myung's job performance approval rating has dipped below 60% for the first time in eight weeks. The approval rating, recorded at 59.5%, fell by 2.7 percentage points from the previous week, while the disapproval rating for his job performance rose by 1.6 percentage points to 35%.

Realmeter conducted the survey on presidential job performance approval ratings among 2,006 voters aged 18 and over nationwide from March 27 to 30, at the request of Energy Economic Daily.

In a party support survey conducted during the same period (March 29-30), the Democratic Party of Korea recorded 48.6%, a 2.7 percentage point drop from the previous week, while the People Power Party showed an increase of 0.9 percentage points to 30.7%.

Realmeter analyzed that factors such as public economic burdens including high oil prices, high exchange rates, and inflation, along with national security remarks by Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and labor disputes, contributed to the decline in approval ratings. The firm added that significant shifts in approval ratings were observed for the Democratic Party among those in their 60s, self-employed individuals, residents of the Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam regions, and centrist voters, and for the People Power Party among those aged 70 and over and conservative voters.