Lee's approval rating dips to lowest point since taking office: poll
President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a meeting with members of the Korean community in Germany at a hotel in Frankfurt, Sunday. Yonhap
President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating fell to the lowest level since he took office in June last year amid the stock market plunge and controversy over a possible constitutional amendment, a poll showed Monday.
In the poll conducted by Realmeter and commissioned by the EKN newspaper, positive assessment of Lee's performance fell 0.4 percentage point from the previous week to 45.9 percent, also marking the third consecutive week of falls.
Negative assessment of his performance rose 1 percentage point to 50.5 percent, surpassing the 50 percent mark for the first time.
The pollster attributed the decline to several factors, including sharp declines in the stock market and heightened market volatility amid concerns over single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds, as well as controversy over a possible constitutional amendment allowing a president to seek reelection.
The controversy was sparked by remarks from National Assembly Speaker Cho Jeong-sik last week suggesting that it would be up to the people to decide whether to revise the Constitution to allow an incumbent president to seek another term.
The weekly survey, conducted on 2,508 people aged 18 and older from last Monday to Friday, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.
In a separate survey conducted by the same pollster, support for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea stood at 45.1 percent, up 3.8 percentage points from the previous week, while support for the main opposition People Power Party fell 2.9 percentage points to 37.7 percent.
The poll was conducted on 1,002 individuals aged 18 and over Thursday and Friday and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.