A survey result released on the 16th showed that positive responses to President Lee Jae-myung's first assessment of his administration were counted in the high 50% range. While the ruling Democratic Party of Korea neared a majority in party support, the People Power Party saw a slight decline, widening the gap between the two parties.
According to a survey conducted by the polling agency Realmeter at the request of Energy Economic Newspaper from June 9 to 13, the combined positive assessment of President Lee's administration, including 'doing very well' (46.6%) and 'doing relatively well' (12.1%), was 58.6%. In contrast, the combined negative rating of 'doing very poorly' (25.2%) and 'doing relatively poorly' (9.0%) was 34.2%. Among the respondents, 7.2% answered 'not sure.'
These figures are higher than the initial approval ratings of former President Yoon Suk-yeol (positive 52.1%) and former President Park Geun-hye (54.8%), but lower than former Presidents Moon Jae-in (81.6%) and Lee Myung-bak (76.0%).
Realmeter analyzed that 'the recovery of the KOSPI at the 2900 level, telephone conversations with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida, and participation in economic group meetings along with assessments of disaster relief measures and visits to the site of the Itaewon disaster appear to have positively influenced public opinion.'
Looking at the daily trends, positive evaluations started at 56.5% on the 10th, rose to 61.1% by the 12th, and then slightly decreased to 59.6% on the 13th.
By region, high support rates were observed in Gwangju and Jeolla (75.8%), Incheon and Gyeonggi (62.6%), and Daejeon, Sejong, and Chungcheong (61.2%). In Daegu and Gyeongbuk (47.7%) and Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam (48.4%), positive evaluations were similar to or outnumbered negative evaluations. By age group, the highest support was seen in individuals in their 40s (73.0%) and 50s (68.0%), while in the 20s, negative evaluations (47.5%) slightly surpassed positive evaluations (42.8%).
When asked about the outlook for the government's performance over the next five years, 59.4% responded 'will do well,' which is an increase of 1.2 percentage points from the previous week. Those who responded 'will not do well' constituted 34.9%, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points.
In the party support survey conducted on June 12-13, the Democratic Party recorded a rise of 1.9 percentage points to 49.9%, nearing a majority support. In contrast, the People Power Party fell sharply to 30.4%, down 4.4 percentage points, widening the support gap between the two parties. The Reform Party (4.5%) and Rebuilding Korea Party (2.9%) both fell, while the Progressive Party saw a slight increase to 1.7%. The nonpartisan group increased to 8.2%, up 3.5 percentage points from the previous week.
The Democratic Party showed an upward trend in support rates even among the People Power Party's strongholds, such as Daegu and Gyeongbuk (17.0%P↑) and among conservatives (6.2%P↑).
In contrast, the People Power Party experienced significant declines in its traditional support bases, such as TK (Daegu and Gyeongbuk, 17.1%P↓) and PK (Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam, 16.3%P↓), and showed weaknesses in the metropolitan area, including Seoul (6.2%P↓) and Gyeonggi and Incheon (3.3%P↓). Particularly poor performance was noted among individuals in their 20s (10.0%P↓), 60s (9.2%P↓), and among sales and labor workers (12.1%P↓).
Realmeter analyzed that 'the Democratic Party benefited from the expected effect of President Lee Jae-myung's inauguration, advancing livelihood policies, and reform of the prosecution, which consolidated its support base,' while 'the People Power Party faced continued declines in approval due to issues like turmoil within the party surrounding the next leadership system and judicial risks involving former President Yoon Suk-yeol.'
This survey was conducted through a wireless automated response method, using a random sampling framework with random phone dialing. The margin of error for the president's performance rating was ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, and for party support surveys was ±3.1 percentage points. For detailed survey outlines and results, refer to the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.