Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating in South Korea rises to 34.8% — Korea Herald
In South Korea, President Lee Jae Myung’s job approval rating rose to 34.8%, ending a nine-week streak of declines. As Korea Herald reports, the figure increased by 1 percentage point over the week.
Survey results
The Realmeter survey was conducted on September 14–18 among 2,507 voters aged 18 and over. In the third week of July, Lee’s rating stood at 48.9%, after which it declined for nine consecutive weeks.
The share of respondents who negatively assessed the president’s performance increased by 0.1 percentage point to 63.4%. Some 1.8% of respondents were undecided. The survey’s margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, while the response rate was 4.1%.
Approval of the president’s performance rose the most among respondents in their 20s, by 5.4 percentage points. The figure increased by 2.8 and 2.9 points among those in their 30s and 60s, respectively. At the same time, it fell by 2.3 and 1.9 points among those in their 40s and 50s.
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Press conference and party support
Realmeter partly linked the recovery in the rating to the president’s latest press conference. According to the company, the figure had previously been affected by controversies over the vetting of candidates for government posts and hearings on their confirmation.
During his seventh press conference since taking office, Lee said he did not intend to seek re-election through constitutional changes. He also asked the National Assembly to remove from a bill on a special prosecutor a provision allowing indictments to be withdrawn.
The president said there would be no deployment of South Korean troops to the Strait of Hormuz that could draw the country into an overseas conflict or war. At the same time, Seoul is considering measures to strengthen protection for South Korean citizens, commercial vessels, and crude oil transport routes in the region.
In a separate Realmeter survey conducted on September 17–18 among 1,003 voters, support for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea rose by 4.1 points to 40.2%. Support for the main opposition People Power Party fell by 3.6 points to 38.5%. The 1.7-percentage-point gap is within the margin of error of this survey.
