President Moon's Approval Rating Approaches 60% [Gallup]

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] A public opinion poll revealed that President Moon Jae-in's approval rating for his job performance approached 60%.

Korea Gallup announced on the 17th that, in a survey conducted over two days (the 13th?14th) just before the general election, 59% of 1,004 adults nationwide responded positively to the question, "Do you think President Moon is performing his duties well?" This is the highest rating in 18 months since the third week of October 2018 (62%). Negative evaluations stood at 33%. Compared to the previous week, positive evaluations rose by 2 percentage points, while negative evaluations fell by 2 percentage points.

By age group, the approval rates were ▲18?29 years old (hereafter '20s') 54%, ▲30s 75%, ▲40s 66%, ▲50s 65%, and ▲60 and older 45%. By political orientation, 90% of progressives and 55% of moderates gave positive evaluations, whereas 64% of conservatives were negative.

Among those who positively evaluated the president's job performance (593 respondents), the reasons were 'Response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)' (54%), 'Doing their best / working hard' (6%), 'Overall good performance' (5%), and 'Expansion of welfare' (3%). COVID-19 related responses have been the top reason for positive evaluations for 10 consecutive weeks.

Among those who negatively evaluated the job performance (335 respondents), the reasons cited were 'Lack of solutions to economic and livelihood issues' (29%), 'Inadequate COVID-19 response' (14%), 'Overall insufficiency' (9%), 'Autocratic / unilateral / biased' (6%), 'Diplomatic issues' (5%), and 'Excessive welfare,' 'Focus on North Korea relations / pro-North Korea stance,' and 'Personnel issues' (each 3%).

Party support ratings were 41% for the Democratic Party of Korea, 25% for the United Future Party, 5% for the Justice Party, 4% for the People’s Party, and 3% for the Open Democratic Party. Compared to the previous week, the Democratic Party and Justice Party fell by 3 and 1 percentage points respectively, while the United Future Party and People’s Party rose by 2 and 1 percentage points respectively.

This survey contacted 8,691 adults aged 18 and over nationwide, with a final 1,004 respondents completing the survey, recording a 12% response rate. The sampling error is ±3.1 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.