More than six out of 10 Koreans view President Lee Jae-myung's handling of state affairs positively, though his approval rating slipped slightly from the previous survey, a new poll showed. In party support, the Democratic Party of Korea maintained its mid-40% range, more than doubling the People Power Party's figure.
Gallup Korea said Thursday that 64% of respondents approved of President Lee's job performance, based on a survey of 1,002 eligible voters aged 18 and older conducted from April 28 to 30. The figure was down 3 percentage points from the previous week's survey. Negative assessments rose 1 percentage point from the prior week to 26%, while the remaining 10% withheld judgment.
A detailed breakdown showed overwhelming support of more than 90% among progressives and Democratic Party backers. Among centrists, a key swing voter group, 69% offered positive evaluations, far exceeding the 20% negative rating. By age, voters in their 40s and 50s showed high support of around 80%, while those in their 20s recorded the lowest at 46% across all age groups. Negative assessments were concentrated among conservatives (56%) and People Power Party supporters (66%).
Those who viewed the administration favorably cited "economy and livelihood" and "diplomacy" (17% each) as the main reasons. These were followed by "generally doing well" (10%) and "job competence and capability" (8%). On the other hand, those giving negative evaluations most frequently pointed to "excessive welfare and livelihood support payments" (15%). Other concerns included "economy, livelihood and high exchange rates" (13%), "diplomacy" (9%) and "real estate policy" (7%).
In the accompanying party support survey, the Democratic Party received 46%, down 2 percentage points from the previous survey. The People Power Party rose 1 percentage point to 21%. The Rebuilding Korea Party and the Reform Party each garnered 2%, while the Progressive Party received 1%. Those not supporting any party accounted for 27%.
Party support diverged sharply along ideological lines. Among progressives, 80% chose the Democratic Party, while 48% of conservatives backed the People Power Party. Centrist voters split 49% for the Democratic Party and 12% for the People Power Party, with 34% remaining unaffiliated.
On expectations for upcoming local elections, 46% said they hoped "a majority of ruling party candidates would be elected," outpacing the 30% who favored "a majority of opposition candidates" by a margin beyond the survey's error range.
The survey was conducted via computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) using randomly selected virtual mobile phone numbers. The response rate was 13.3%, with a margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. More details are available from the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
