President Moon's Approval Rating Barely Holds at 30%... Hits New Low Since Inauguration [Gallup]

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] A public opinion poll has revealed that President Moon Jae-in's positive job performance rating has fallen to its lowest point since his inauguration. It dropped 2 percentage points from the 32% announced on April 2, before the April 7 by-elections, ultimately falling to 30%.

According to a public opinion poll conducted by Gallup Korea from April 13 to 15 among 1,005 adults nationwide aged 18 and older, President Moon's positive job performance rating stood at 30%, marking the lowest since his inauguration. This figure is 2 percentage points lower than the previous survey released two weeks earlier. The negative rating rose by 4 percentage points during the same period, reaching 62%, the highest since his inauguration.

By age group, positive ratings were lower than negative ratings across all groups: 20s (27%), 30s (33%), 40s (41%), 50s (31%), and 60 and older (23%).

By political party support, 69% of Democratic Party supporters evaluated positively, while 94% of People Power Party supporters evaluated negatively. Among those without a current party affiliation, the negative rating also led (positive 15%, negative 68%).

Notably, there was a significant change among centrists by political orientation. In the first week of April before the by-elections (March 30?April 1), positive ratings among centrists were 32% and negative ratings were 60%. In the recent results, these figures shifted to 24% positive and 67% negative. Support rates were 53% among progressives and 16% among conservatives.

Among those who negatively evaluated job performance (615 respondents, open-ended responses), the reasons cited included 'real estate policy' (31%), 'lack of solutions for economic and livelihood issues' (9%), 'inadequate COVID-19 response' (8%), 'unfairness and double standards' (7%), 'personnel issues' (6%), 'arbitrary, one-sided, biased' (4%), 'lack of leadership and incompetence', 'overall inadequacy', and 'North Korea relations' (each 3%).

Party support stood at 31% for the Democratic Party, 30% for the People Power Party, 27% for those without party affiliation, 5% each for the Justice Party and the People Party, and 2% for the Open Democratic Party. Support for the People Power Party increased by 2 percentage points compared to two weeks ago, while the People Party decreased by 1 percentage point. Other parties showed little change compared to before the by-elections.

This survey was conducted using a random sampling method from a mobile phone RDD sample frame (including 15% landline RDD), with a response rate of 17% and a sampling error of ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Detailed information can be found on the Gallup Korea website or the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.

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