Lee’s approval rating falls again after brief rebound

President Lee Jae Myung speaks at a public event in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, on Oct. 14. (Yonhap)

President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating dipped after a brief rebound last week that had ended a four-week slide, data showed Monday.

According to a survey conducted by local pollster Realmeter from Oct. 13-17, 52.2 percent of respondents said they view Lee’s performance in state affairs positively, down 1.3 percentage points from the previous week.

In contrast, 44.9 percent offered a negative assessment, up 1.6 percentage points from a week earlier. The poll surveyed 2,518 respondents aged 18 and older nationwide.

Realmeter said the decline at the beginning of the week appeared to stem from “stalled Korea-US tariff negotiations and controversy over the president’s appearance on a television entertainment program during the Chuseok holiday.”

The TV show, filmed on Sept. 28, was originally scheduled to air on Oct. 5, but was instead broadcast a day later amid disruptions caused by a fire at a data center in Daejeon that paralyzed the state network.

The pollster added that “criticism of the government’s delayed response to a series of kidnapping cases involving Koreans in Cambodia, along with concerns over a housing shortage following tighter real estate measures, kept approval stagnant in the low 50 percent range during midweek."

The steepest decline was seen in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province — strongholds of the conservative bloc — where approval dropped by 8.6 percentage points to 35 percent. In Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, approval slipped by 1 percentage point to 53.3 percent.

Meanwhile, support rose in Seoul to 49.3 percent, up 1.3 percentage points, in Daejeon, Sejong and the North and South Chungcheong provinces to 53.1 percent, up 2.6 points, and in Busan, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang Province to 52.4 percent, up 3.6 points.

Similar trends were observed in party support.

In a separate Realmeter poll conducted Oct. 16-17, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea garnered support from 46.4 percent, down 0.7 percentage point from a week earlier, while the main opposition People Power Party rose slightly to 36.7 percent, up 0.8 point.

The gap between the two narrowed to 9.8 percentage points, down from 11.3 percentage points a week earlier.

Among minor parties, support stood at 3.1 percent for the liberal Rebuilding Korea Party, 1.4 percent for the Progressive Party and 3 percent for the conservative Reform Party.

The presidential approval poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, while the party support poll plus or minus 3.1 points, both at a 95 percent confidence level, the pollster said.

More details are available on the National Election Commission website at www.nec.go.kr.