President Moon's approval rating at 49%... Negative evaluations lead for the first time in two months [Gallup]

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] A public opinion poll revealed that positive evaluations of President Moon Jae-in's performance in office have surpassed negative evaluations for the first time in about two months.

Korea Gallup announced on the 13th that, based on a survey conducted from the 10th to the 12th targeting 1,001 individuals aged 18 and older, 49% of respondents gave a positive evaluation of President Moon's job performance. This figure rose by 5 percentage points compared to the previous week. Negative evaluations decreased by 3 percentage points to 45%.

According to Gallup's survey criteria, this is the first time in eight weeks since the second week of January that positive evaluations have outnumbered negative ones.

By age group, the positive/negative rates were 47%/44% for ages 18-29, 54%/42% for those in their 30s, 64%/32% for those in their 40s, 52%/43% for those in their 50s, and 36%/56% for those aged 60 and above.

By political party support, 84% of Democratic Party supporters and 71% of Justice Party supporters evaluated the president's job performance positively, while 91% of United Future Party supporters viewed it negatively. Among the non-affiliated (no party) group, there was a significant change. Although negative views still predominated, positive evaluations increased compared to the previous week (1st week of March positive/negative 19%/61% → 2nd week 35%/52%).

When asked the reasons for their positive evaluation (494 respondents), the top responses were 'Response to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19)' (44%), 'Doing their best/working hard' (9%), 'Overall good performance' (7%), 'Honesty, frankness, transparency' (5%), followed by 'Considering the people's position,' 'Faithfulness to basics/principles/fairness,' and 'Diplomacy/international relations' (each 3%).

Negative evaluators (446 respondents) cited 'Inadequate response to COVID-19' (37%), 'Insufficient resolution of economic and livelihood issues' (15%), 'Overall inadequacy' (12%), 'Diplomatic issues' (6%), 'Untrustworthy/unfavorable impression' (4%), 'Focus on North Korea relations/pro-North Korea tendencies,' and 'Autocratic/one-sided/biased' (each 3%) as reasons.

Notably, COVID-19 related responses have ranked first among reasons for both positive and negative evaluations for several weeks, though the proportion citing it as a negative reason has decreased compared to last week.

Party support stood at 39% for the Democratic Party, 22% for the United Future Party, 6% for the Justice Party, 3% for the People's Party, and 1% for the Liberty Republican Party. Compared to the previous week, the Democratic Party and People's Party rose by 3 and 1 percentage points respectively, but there was no significant change in the overall party landscape.

Regarding preferences ahead of the general election on whether to support the government or to check it, 43% responded that 'a majority of the ruling party must be elected to support the government,' while another 43% said 'many opposition candidates must be elected to check the government,' resulting in a tie.

In the January survey, support for the government outpaced calls for checks by about 10 percentage points, but this time, responses were evenly split, Gallup reported.

This survey contacted 6,549 adults nationwide aged 18 and over, with a final response of 1,001 people, yielding a response rate of 15%. The sampling error is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For more details, refer to the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.

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