President Moon's Approval Rating Falls to 45%...Women and 2030 Generation Turn Away [Realmeter]

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] President Moon Jae-in's approval rating for his administration has fallen to the mid-40% range. It appears that the controversy surrounding the ruling party's recruited talent Won Jong-geon’s dating violence allegations and the spread of the coronavirus infection (Wuhan pneumonia) have influenced this decline.

According to Realmeter, which conducted a public opinion survey commissioned by YTN from the 28th to the 31st, the positive evaluation of President Moon’s administration dropped by 2.0 percentage points from the previous week’s weekly aggregate to 45.0%, the agency announced on the 3rd. Negative evaluations rose by 0.4 percentage points to 50.3%. The gap between positive and negative evaluations was 5.3 percentage points, exceeding the margin of error (±2.5 percentage points).

It is particularly analyzed that the decline in approval ratings was led by people in their 20s and 30s and women. By age group, the drop was significant in the 30s (49.2% → 42.9%) and 20s (47.8% → 42.9%), falling by about 5 percentage points. While men’s approval rating barely changed, decreasing by 0.1% from the previous week, women’s approval rating (49.4% → 45.4%) fell sharply by 4.0 percentage points.

The controversy over dating violence involving Won Jong-geon, who was a recruited talent for the Democratic Party of Korea’s general election, is interpreted as having an impact. Additionally, the instability in governance caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus seems to have been a factor in the decline.

In party support, the Democratic Party recorded 38.5%, down 1.9 percentage points from the previous week, breaking below the 40% mark. The Liberty Korea Party also fell 2.8 percentage points to 29.3%, failing to maintain the 30% threshold.

Regarding the simultaneous decline of both major parties, Realmeter analyzed that it reflects the public’s evaluation of both ruling and opposition parties continuing political strife despite the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The Justice Party rose 1.2 percentage points to 5.6%. The New Conservative Party remained steady at 3.8%, while the Bareunmirae Party dropped 0.6 percentage points to 3.5%. Other parties such as the Party for Democracy and Peace (1.6%), Our Republican Party (1.4%), the Alternative New Party (1.2%), and the Minjung Party (1.2%) recorded support rates in the 1% range.

This survey contacted 51,174 adult men and women nationwide aged 18 and over, with a final 2,511 respondents completing the survey, resulting in a response rate of 4.9%. The sampling error is ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For more details, refer to the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.