President Moon's Approval Rating Slightly Drops Despite Positive Effects of US Visit... Positive 34.9% vs Negative 61.0% [Realmeter]

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] In a public opinion poll conducted ahead of the Korea-US summit, President Moon Jae-in's approval rating showed a slight decline. It is interpreted that people reacted more sensitively to the current situation, such as unstable vaccine supply, rather than expectations for the summit.

On the 24th, Realmeter, commissioned by YTN, surveyed 2,010 voters aged 18 and over nationwide over four days from the 17th to 18th and 20th to 21st. The result showed that the positive evaluation of President Moon's state administration was 34.9%, down 1.1 percentage points compared to the weekly aggregate of the second week of May. The negative evaluation of "not doing well in state administration" rose by 0.5 percentage points to 61.0%, and "don't know/no response" was 4.0%.

By region, Gwangju and Jeolla (50.4%) saw the largest drop in approval rating by 9.4 percentage points. This was followed by Incheon and Gyeonggi (35.1%) and Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam (24.2%), which fell by 4.2 percentage points and 3.7 percentage points, respectively. Seoul (38.8%), Daejeon, Sejong, and Chungcheong (36.8%), and Daegu and Gyeongbuk (25.0%) saw increases of 4.7 percentage points, 3.3 percentage points, and 2.3 percentage points, respectively.

By age group, the approval rating decline was significant among those in their 40s and 30s. It dropped by 4.5 percentage points and 3.9 percentage points compared to the previous week, resulting in approval ratings of 46.2% and 39.7%, respectively.

Regarding party support, the People Power Party rose by 0.5 percentage points to 35.9%, while the Democratic Party of Korea fell by 0.2 percentage points to 29.7%. The gap between the two parties was 6.2 percentage points, with the People Power Party leading outside the margin of error for 10 consecutive weeks. This was followed by the People's Party (7.1%), Open Democratic Party (5.5%), and Justice Party (4.0%).

Realmeter commented, "Despite favorable factors such as the May 18 Democratic Movement anniversary and President Moon's visit to the U.S., the Democratic Party failed to maintain its upward trend," and analyzed that "this is due to disappointment over the failure to deliver a consistent and clear message regarding real estate solutions in early week and the ruling party's failure to show a governing party-like image after the April 7 by-elections."

This survey was conducted with 2,010 respondents out of 39,839 voters aged 18 and over nationwide, with a response rate of 5.0%. The sampling error is ±2.2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Detailed survey outlines and results can be found on the Realmeter or Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission websites.

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