More than 70% of the People Disapprove of President Yoon's Handling of State Affairs and 76.8% Oppose Children Starting School at Age 5

Disapproval of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s job performance exceeded 70% for the first time, according to a survey result released on August 8.

The polling firm, the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) conducted a survey of 1,002 adult men and women nationwide on August 5-6 upon request from TBS. The result showed that only 27.5% of the respondents approved of President Yoon’s handling of state administration, while 70.1% disapproved of his job performance and 2.4% answered, “I don’t know.”

The gap between the president’s approval and disapproval ratings was 42.6%. His approval ratings dropped 1.4%, while those who said the president was doing a bad job increased 1.6% from the previous week.

As for lowering the age at which children enter school to age five, a change in our education system promoted by the education ministry, 59.0% answered they “strongly opposed” and 17.9% said they “mostly opposed.” An overwhelming 76.8% of the people opposed the new policy, while only 17.4% said they were in favor of the change.

The survey also asked people what they thought about President Yoon Suk-yeol not meeting U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who visited the country when the president was on vacation, and 60.3% answered, “It was inappropriate for it was not in our country’s best interest.” Only 13.6% answered, “It was appropriate considering our national interest.”

When it came to Kookmin University’s conclusion that there was no improper research practice involved in first lady Kim Keon-hee’s doctoral dissertation, 64.2% of the people said it was a “wrong decision,” while 21.2% answered, it was a “proper decision.”

As for the approval rating of political parties, support for the Democratic Party of Korea dropped 6.7% from the previous week to 36.8%, and support for the People Power Party also fell 2.5% to record 31.3%. People who answered that they had no political party they supported accounted for 23.7%.

The latest survey was conducted with an automated response system through mobile phones--virtual numbers provided by the National Election Commission. The response rate was 6.8% and the margin of error was ±3.1% with a confidence level of 95%. For more details, you can refer to the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.