President Lee Jae-myung presides over a Cabinet meeting at the Blue House on the 30th. Reporter Kim Chang-gil
As President Lee Jae-myung completes his first year in office, his job approval stands at 57%. On who should win more seats between ruling and opposition candidates in the June local elections, the split was tight at 42% versus 38%.
Commissioned by Kyunghyang Shinmun to mark its 80th anniversary in the new year, Gallup Korea asked 1,010 adults nationwide aged 18 and older on the 26-27. Responses were 57% for ‘President Lee is doing well’ and 35% for ‘doing poorly’. ‘Do not know·Refused’ was 6%, and ‘Neither side’ was 2%.
Among reasons for a positive assessment of President Lee performance, the most cited at 12% was ‘he manages state affairs well and has strong job performance’. The top reason for a negative assessment, at 14%, was ‘the exchange rate has risen and the won has depreciated’.
Positive evaluations of the role performance of Jeong Cheong-rae, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, and Jang Dong-hyeok, leader of the People Power Party, were 38% and 28%, respectively. Party support stood at 41% for the Democratic Party of Korea, 24% for the People Power Party, 4% for the Reform Party, 3% for the Cho Kuk Innovation Party, and 1% for the Progressive Party.
For the June 3 (6·3) local elections in the new year, 42% said ‘more ruling-party candidates should be elected’, while 38% said ‘more opposition candidates should be elected’, a gap within the margin of error. ‘Do not know·Refused’ was 20%. When choosing metropolitan-level heads of local government, the most common response at 37% was that they would consider ‘expertise and competence’.
Regarding Coupang, at the center of controversy over its response following a large-scale personal data leak, 58% ‘agree’ with the business suspension the government is considering, while 34% ‘do not agree’.
Favorability toward China was 21%, less than half of favorability toward the United States (53%). Domestically, 52% agreed that anti-China protests are serious, while 38% did not agree. On the need to legally restrict protests targeting foreign countries and foreigners, 50% agreed and 42% did not.
Regarding the South Korea-U.S. alliance, after South Korea and the United States concluded tariff and security negotiations last year, 62% said it is ‘more favorable to the United States’, 25% said it is ‘on equal footing’, and 4% said it is ‘more favorable to South Korea’. Going forward, 45% said the alliance ‘should be strengthened’, 38% said it ‘should be maintained at the current level’, and 11% said it ‘should be reduced’.
The margin of error for this survey is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, and the response rate is 10.1%. It was conducted by randomly sampling mobile virtual numbers provided by the three mobile carriers, with live interviewers conducting phone interviews. For details, see the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission. 한글기사 원본(Original Korean Story)
