President Yoon's Governance Defense Line Falls Below 30%... Gallup Poll Shows 28% Positive, 62% Negative (Comprehensive)

Negative Ratings Surpass Positive Ratings in All Regions Nationwide
Negative Public Opinion Higher in All Age Groups Except Those 70 and Older
Democratic Party and People Power Party Support Rates Tied for the First Time Since Local Elections

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] The 30% support threshold for President Yoon Suk-yeol's administration, once considered a defense line, has collapsed. President Yoon's approval rating for his administration had been declining for six consecutive weeks, paused last week, but dropped again this week.

According to a regular public opinion poll released on the 29th by Gallup (a telephone interviewer survey conducted nationwide from the 26th to the 28th with over 1,000 respondents aged 18 and older), 28% of respondents said President Yoon is performing well in his administration, while 62% said he is performing poorly. Compared to last week's survey, the positive rating dropped by 4 percentage points, and the negative rating rose by 2 percentage points.

President Yoon's approval rating had been steadily declining since hitting 53% in the second week of June. Although it was analyzed that the decline had temporarily stopped after reaching 32% in the second week of July and remaining at 32% last week, the downward trend has resumed.

Regionally, negative evaluations were higher than positive ones in all areas nationwide. Even in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region, considered a core support base for the current ruling party, 47% said the administration is performing poorly, while 40% said it is performing well. By age group, all groups under 60 showed higher negative evaluations, while only those aged 70 and above had a higher positive evaluation at 48%, compared to 34% negative.

Those who evaluated President Yoon's administration positively cited reasons such as "fairness, justice, principles" (9%), "subjectivity and conviction," "economy and livelihood," "overcoming the previous administration" (all 6%), "communication" (5%), "overall good performance," "personnel," "decisiveness, drive, perseverance" and "hardworking and doing their best" (all 4%), and "diplomacy" (3%). Those who evaluated negatively mentioned "personnel" (21%), "lack of experience, qualifications, incompetence," "neglecting economy and livelihood," "authoritarian and unilateral" (all 8%), "lack of communication" (6%), "overall poor performance" (5%), "establishment of the police bureau" (4%), "work attitude," and "internal conflicts within the ruling party and exposure of Kwon Seong-dong's text messages" (all 3%).

In the case of former President Park Geun-hye, her approval rating fell below 30% in Gallup's regular polls in January 2015, the mid-term of her presidency, while former President Moon Jae-in's approval rating dropped below 30% in April last year, the late term of his presidency.

However, some recent polls have shown that the decline in President Yoon's approval rating has halted. According to a poll conducted by Media Tomato commissioned by News Tomato (from the 26th to 27th, nationwide survey of 1,047 men and women aged 18 and older) and the National Barometer Survey (NBS) conducted by Embrain Public, K-Stat Research, Korea Research, and Hankook Research (from the 25th to 27th, nationwide survey of 1,006 adults), the downward trend in President Yoon's approval rating has temporarily stopped. The Media Tomato poll recorded a positive rating of 36.0% and a negative rating of 62.0%, showing a 5.4% increase in positive evaluation and a 5.2% decrease in negative evaluation compared to last week. The NBS showed a 34% positive rating and 54% negative rating, both increasing by 1 percentage point compared to two weeks ago.

In party support ratings, the People Power Party's support dropped by 3 percentage points compared to last week, while the Democratic Party of Korea rose by 3 percentage points to 36%, resulting in a tie. This broke the trend since the first week of May, when the People Power Party had consistently led the Democratic Party in support ratings.

For detailed survey methodology and results related to the polls, please refer to the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.

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