Moon's approval rating exceeds 70%

President Moon Jae-in speaks during a meeting with senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae, Monday. His approval rating exceeded 70 percent according to an opinion poll released Friday. Yonhap

By Kim Rahn

President Moon Jae-in's approval rating has surpassed 70 percent, largely backed by positive reviews on the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, an opinion survey showed, Friday.

It is the first time since the third week of July 2018 that his approval rating has exceeded 70 percent.

According to the survey by Gallup Korea of 1,004 adults from Wednesday to Thursday, 71 percent of the respondents said they believed Moon was doing a good job, up 7 percentage points from the previous week.

Another 21 percent took a negative view, 5 percentage points down, while the others said they did not know.

Moon's approval rating, which reached 79 percent right after the local elections in June 2018, had dropped to 49 percent by the first week of September that year, but rebounded to over 60 percent after the third inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang in the middle of that month. It declined again to hover below 50 percent until the third week of March this year, but went upward again along with good reviews of the government's response to the coronavirus crisis.

Ahead of the third anniversary of his inauguration this Sunday, Moon is the first President since 1987 ― when the current Constitution was adopted following pro-democracy movements ― to hold onto such a high approval rating three years into a five-year term. In similar times, former President Roh Tae-woo had a 12 percent approval rating; Kim Young-sam, 41 percent; Kim Dae-jung, 27 percent; Roh Moo-hyun, 27 percent; Lee Myung-bak, 43 percent; and Park Geun-hye, 42 percent.

Over half of those who expressed approval of Moon, or 53 percent, cited the Moon administration's COVID-19 response as the reason for their approval, while 6 percent said he was doing his job well in general. Among those who did not support him, 22 percent said his policies were insufficient to fix the sluggish economy, while 11 percent said he was too focused on North Korea issues and was too pro-Pyongyang.