President Yoon's Approval Rating Hits Lowest in 5 Months... Realmeter Reports 2.8%p Drop to 33.6%

People Power Party Support Down 3.1%p to 33.9%
Democratic Party Support Up 2.9%p to 48.8%
Lowest in 5 Months According to Last Week's Gallup

President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating for his administration has fallen to the low 30% range for the first time in five months. While the People Power Party's approval rating also declined, the Democratic Party's approval rating showed an upward trend.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to a regular public opinion poll released on the 17th by Realmeter (conducted over five days from the 10th to the 14th nationwide among 2,506 adults aged 18 and over using an ARS automated response method commissioned by Media Tribune), President Yoon's approval rating dropped by 2.8 percentage points from the previous week's survey to 33.6%. Negative evaluations stating that the president is "performing poorly" rose by 2.4 percentage points to 63.4%. President Yoon's approval rating has shown a decline for two consecutive weeks.

Looking at the daily approval rating trend, President Yoon's approval rating was 36.5% on the 11th but declined to 31.4% on the 14th. During the same period, negative evaluations increased from 60.6% to 65.1%.

By region, the approval rating dropped notably in Seoul (down 6.3 percentage points, from 37.8% to 31.5%), and by age group, significant declines were seen among those in their 60s (down 9.8 percentage points, from 52.2% to 42.4%) and 30s (down 7.4 percentage points, from 33.2% to 25.8%).

Alongside President Yoon's approval rating, the ruling party's approval rating also showed a concurrent decline. The Democratic Party's approval rating rose by 2.9 percentage points to 48.8%, while the People Power Party's rating fell by 3.1 percentage points to 33.9%. As a result, the gap between the two major parties widened from 8.9 percentage points last week to 14.9 percentage points this week. The Justice Party's rating dropped by 0.3 percentage points to 3.4%, and the non-affiliated group increased by 1.0 percentage point to 12.2%.

The Democratic Party saw significant increases in approval ratings in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region (up 9.2 percentage points), among those in their 60s (up 8.8 percentage points), and those in their 30s (up 6.0 percentage points). Conversely, the People Power Party experienced large declines in Seoul (down 6.3 percentage points), Daegu-Gyeongbuk (down 6.2 percentage points), among women (down 5.5 percentage points), those in their 30s (down 9.7 percentage points), and those in their 60s (down 7.0 percentage points).

Earlier, in a public opinion poll released on the 14th by Gallup Korea (self-conducted survey from the 11th to the 13th among 1,002 adults nationwide aged 18 and over), President Yoon's approval rating was also at its lowest level in five months. In this survey, President Yoon's approval rating dropped by 4 percentage points from the previous week to 27%. Examining the reasons for positive and negative evaluations of President Yoon's job performance, the previous week's survey ranked Japan and diplomatic relations highest, while this week saw an increase in mentions related to diplomacy. The situation involving the U.S. ally's surveillance and the government's response is interpreted as having contributed to the decline in approval ratings. Gallup's approval rating is also at its lowest level in five months.

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

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