Yoon's Approval Rating Drops After 3 Weeks... Barely Holding at 40%

"North Korea Provocation 'Certain Retaliation' and Hardline Response Backfire"
Party Approval Ratings: Democratic Party 45.5% vs People Power Party 39.2%

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] A public opinion poll revealed that President Yoon Seok-yeol's approval rating for his administration has declined for the first time in three weeks. Although the approval rating, which had been gradually rising recently amid controversies over North Korean drone airspace violations and inadequate responses, has been halted, it still remains in the 40% range.

According to Realmeter's announcement on the 2nd, based on a survey commissioned by Media Tribune conducted from December 26 to 30 last year targeting 2,511 adults aged 18 and over nationwide, President Yoon's positive evaluation of his administration was 40.0%, while the negative evaluation was 57.2%. The positive rating fell by 1.2 percentage points compared to the previous survey, and the negative rating rose by 0.6 percentage points. The gap between positive and negative evaluations was 17.2 percentage points, which is outside the margin of error. The "don't know" response was 2.8%.

President Yoon's approval rating had hovered in the 30% range since June last year but began to rise following a tough response to the Cargo Solidarity strike, recovering to the 40% range in the third week of December for the first time in 24 weeks.

Thanks to communication efforts during the year-end and New Year period, the administration's approval rating was expected to rise to the mid-40% range in the last week of 2022. However, Realmeter analyzed that recent North Korean provocations and President Yoon's remarks about "certain retaliation" and "superior war readiness" heightened tensions with the North, causing the approval rating to turn downward.

Accordingly, among moderate voters, the approval rating dropped by 1.3 percentage points from 40.1% to 38.8%, and among conservatives sensitive to North Korea and security issues, the approval rating, which had reached 68.2%, fell by 1.9 percentage points to 66.3%.

Regionally, the approval rating for the administration fell the most in Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam (43.1%), dropping by 6.7 percentage points. By age group, the 40s (27.7%) and 20s (30.0%) saw declines of 3.0 percentage points and 2.2 percentage points, respectively.

Regarding party support, the Democratic Party of Korea rose by 2.6 percentage points to 45.5%, while the People Power Party fell by 1.8 percentage points to 39.2%. The gap between the two parties' support widened from 1.9 percentage points the previous week to 6.3 percentage points, expanding beyond the margin of error for the first time in three weeks.

The margin of error for this survey is ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. The survey was conducted via automated phone calls, with 97% mobile and 3% landline, and the response rate was 3.7%.

For more details, please refer to the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.

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