President Lee's Approval Rating Drops to 57% Amid Election Concerns

President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating has fallen to 57%, marking the lowest level this year, according to a survey released on June 12.

The Korea Gallup poll, conducted from June 9 to 11 with 1,002 eligible voters aged 18 and older, found that 57% of respondents rated Lee's job performance positively. This represents a 7 percentage point drop from a survey conducted just before local elections in the third week of May. Lee's approval rating had previously reached 58% in surveys from the third week of January and the first week of February, but has since declined.

The disapproval rating rose to 35%, an increase of 7 percentage points from the last survey, while 8% of respondents were undecided.

Respondents cited the economy and public welfare as the primary reasons for their positive evaluations, accounting for 21%, followed by foreign affairs at 12%. Conversely, the leading reason for disapproval was concerns over election integrity and issues with the election commission, which accounted for 16%. Economic issues, high living costs, and currency exchange rates were cited by 14%, while real estate policies garnered 9%. Issues of morality and avoidance of personal legal challenges were mentioned by 8% as reasons for disapproval.

Korea Gallup noted that this is the first time in four months that the president's approval rating has fallen below 60%, and the ruling party's support has also declined. The survey indicated that concerns regarding the election commission were prominently mentioned, reflecting the impact of recent shortages of ballots.

The survey was conducted using randomly selected virtual numbers provided by the three major mobile carriers and was carried out through telephone interviews. The margin of error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with a response rate of 11.3% and a contact rate of 42.9%.

For more details, visit the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission's website.