President Lee Jae-myung's job approval rating stood at 61.2%, according to a poll released on Sunday.
The survey, conducted by Realmeter on behalf of Energy Economy newspaper from March 30 to April 3 among 2,519 voters aged 18 and older nationwide, showed the president's approval rating at 61.2%, down 1 percentage point from the previous week.
Lee's approval had been on an upward trend — rising from 58.2% in the first week of March to 60.3% in the second week, 62.2% in the third week, and 62.2% in the fourth week — before declining for the first time in five weeks.
Negative responses, those who said the president was "doing a poor job," rose 1.1 percentage points to 33.3%. Those who answered "don't know" accounted for 5.5%.
"The prolonged war in the Middle East has worsened high prices and a high exchange rate, increasing the economic burden on ordinary citizens, which appears to have contributed to the decline in approval ratings," Realmeter said in its analysis.
A separate party approval survey conducted from April 2 to 3 among 1,005 voters aged 18 and older nationwide showed the Democratic Party of Korea at 49.9%, down 1.2 percentage points from the previous week, while the People Power Party rose 0.7 percentage points to 31.3%.