Lee Jae-myung’s job approval rating hits 59% in 1st week since taking office

President Lee Jae-myung speaks during a meeting with residents near the inter-Korean border in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. Yonhap

Nearly six out of 10 Koreans gave a positive evaluation to President Lee Jae-myung's job performance in his first public evaluation since taking office on June 4, according to a poll released Monday.

In a survey conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Friday, 58.6 percent of 2,507 adults nationwide approved of Lee's job performance, while 34.2 percent said he was performing poorly and 7.2 percent said they were unsure.

Lee's approval rating in his first week as president was higher than those of his predecessors Yoon Suk Yeol who received 52.1 percent, and Park Geun-hye at 54.8 percent. However, it was lower than the ratings achieved by Moon Jae-in at 81.6 percent and Lee Myung-bak at 76 percent.

Realmeter attributes the positive evaluation to a number of factors, including an improvement in economic sentiment that includes a bullish stock market, as well as the resumption of diplomacy including Lee's phone calls with his U.S., Japanese and Chinese counterparts.

By region, Lee received the highest job approval from Gwangju and the Jeolla provinces at 75.8 percent. He was also popular in Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, where he received 62.6 percent, and in Seoul, at 56.5 percent. In the conservative stronghold of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province combined, approval stood at 47.7 percent.

By age group, those in their 40s demonstrated the highest level of approval at 73 percent, while the lowest was among respondents in their 20s at 42.8 percent.

Asked about their expectations for Lee’s performance for the remainder of his five-year term, 59.4 percent of respondents expressed a positive outlook, while 34.9 percent were pessimistic.

The poll also showed about half of the respondents backing the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) with a support rate of 49.9 percent, up 1.9 percentage points from the week before, while the support rate for the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) fell by 4.4 percentage points to 30.4 percent. This widened the gap between the two main parties to 19.5 percentage points, up 6.4 percentage points from the previous week.

Realmeter attributed the DPK's rise to a “consolidation of support” following Lee’s inauguration, highlighting his focus on livelihood issues and reforming the prosecution. By contrast, it cited internal strife and judicial risks involving Yoon as the reasons behind the PPP’s decline.

Meanwhile, support for the minor conservative Reform Party was 4.5 percent.

The Realmeter poll was commissioned by Energy Economic News and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, with a credibility rating of 95 percent. Further details are available on the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission’s website.