President Lee Jae-myung's job approval rating held at 69%, the highest since taking office, according to a poll released Friday.
The National Barometer Survey (NBS) conducted by Embrain Public, Kstat Research, Korea Research, and Hankook Research from April 6 to 8 polled 1,000 adults aged 18 and older nationwide. The survey found 69% of respondents rated the president as "doing well," maintaining the same level as the fourth week of March. The positive rating has risen steadily from 59% in the fourth week of January.
Negative responses saying Lee is "doing poorly" remained unchanged at 22% from the previous survey. However, disapproval among conservatives fell from 50% to 46%, narrowing the gap with approval (45%) to just 1 percentage point.
Trust in the president's governance rose 2 percentage points from the previous survey's 66% to 68%. Across all age groups, those who said they "trust" the president outnumbered those who "do not trust" him.
In party support ratings, the Democratic Party of Korea rose 1 percentage point to 47% from the previous survey. The People Power Party (PPP) remained unchanged at 18%. The PPP trailed the Democratic Party in all regions except Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province (TK), where the gap was only 3 percentage points. Other parties polled at 3% for the Reform Party, 2% for the Rebuilding Korea Party, and 1% for the Progressive Party.
On evaluations of nominations for the local elections, 53% said the Democratic Party is "doing well" while 24% said it is "doing poorly." In contrast, 63% said the PPP is "doing poorly" in its nominations, far exceeding the 16% who said it is "doing well."
Regarding holding a constitutional amendment referendum simultaneously with the local elections, 61% of respondents were in favor while 23% were opposed. By ideological orientation, support was high among progressives and moderates at 82% and 62% respectively, while conservatives were evenly split at 45% in favor and 44% opposed.
The NBS survey was conducted via telephone interviews using mobile virtual numbers (100%), with a margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The response rate was 22.7%. For details, refer to the National Election Survey Deliberation Committee website.