President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating fell to 42%, the lowest since he took office, according to a poll released on the 28th. Distrust of the government's housing policy drove the decline.
In a Gallup Korea survey of 1,001 voters aged 18 and older conducted from the 25th to the 27th, 42% of respondents said Lee was doing a good job. That marked a 3 percentage point drop from the previous week and a record low since his inauguration. Disapproval rose 5 percentage points to 50%, the first time it has reached that level since he took office. By Gallup Korea's measure, positive assessments hit a post-inauguration low and negative assessments a post-inauguration high. Eight percent withheld an opinion.
Disapproval also outweighed approval among moderates. Among that group, 41% said Lee was doing a good job while 49% said he was not.
Housing policy emerged as the main driver of the decline. Among those who said Lee was performing poorly, 27% cited housing policy, the most common reason. Next came reducing prosecutors' powers, the economy and livelihoods, and questions about his integrity and his avoidance of his own trial at 7%, followed by general poor performance, defense and security, and authoritarian or unilateral rule at 5%. Housing policy has ranked first among reasons for disapproval in all four surveys since the fourth week of July.
Among those who approved, foreign policy ranked highest at 16%, followed by the economy and livelihoods at 11%, communication at 10%, and housing policy and general good performance at 7%.
Support for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea also declined. In the party preference survey, the Democratic Party fell 2 percentage points from the previous poll to 39%. The People Power Party stood at 25%, trailing the Democratic Party by 14 percentage points. The Rebuilding Korea Party rose 2 percentage points from the previous week to 4%. Some analysts read this as hard-line supporters within the Democratic Party moving to the Rebuilding Korea Party since Kim Min-seok became party leader. The Reform Party drew 3% and the Progressive Party 1%.
The survey was conducted through computer-assisted telephone interviews using randomly selected virtual mobile numbers provided by the country's three wireless carriers. The response rate was 9.5%. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Further details are available on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
