Seoul:President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating has dropped for the second consecutive week to 35.2 percent.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the decline was revealed in a poll conducted by Realmeter, surveying 1,504 adults nationwide from last Tuesday to Thursday. The positive assessments of President Lee's job performance decreased by 2.2 percentage points from the previous week, while negative assessments increased by 1.6 percentage points, reaching 61.4 percent.
The pollster attributed the decline in approval ratings to controversies surrounding judicial independence involving Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae, disputes between rival parties over mine explosions in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and rising rental and housing prices in the Seoul metropolitan area, all highlighted during parliamentary audits.
In a separate survey conducted last Wednesday and Thursday with 1,004 adults, support for the ruling Democratic Party fell by 7 percentage points to 35.5 percent. In contrast, the main opposition People Power Party saw an increase in support, rising 2.9 percentage points to 41.3 percent.
The survey regarding the president had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level, while the survey on political party support had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points at the same confidence level. Both polls were commissioned by the Asia Business Daily.