Gallup Korea puts President Lee's job approval at 40%, up 1 percentage point from the previous week

Gallup Korea announced on the 23rd that President Lee's job approval stood at 40%, up 1 percentage point from the previous week. The survey covered 1,001 voters aged 18 and older nationwide on the 20th–22nd, marking the first reading in the 40% range in seven weeks, since 40% in the first week of September.

Disapproval fell 2 percentage points from the previous week to 50%. Another 10% of respondents withheld an opinion.

Diplomacy was the most frequently cited reason for approval at 21%, followed by the economy and livelihoods at 14% and communication at 7%. Reasons for disapproval were led by real estate policy at 18%, followed by the economy and livelihoods at 16% and defense, security and North Korea policy at 10%; real estate policy had remained the leading reason for disapproval since the fourth week of July.

Gallup Korea said in its analysis that references to the economy had increased from the previous week among reasons for both approval and disapproval.

Party support stood at 37% for the Democratic Party and 28% for the People Power Party. Both rose 1 percentage point from the previous week, keeping the gap at 9 percentage points; the Rebuilding Korea Party had 3%, the Reform Party 2%, the Progressive Party 1%, and respondents supporting no party accounted for 27%.

The poll used telephone interviews conducted by interviewers through randomly selected virtual mobile phone numbers. Its margin of error was ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with a contact rate of 41.3% and a response rate of 10.6%.