President Lee Jae-myung's job approval fell 3.7 percentage points in a week to 53.1%. Support for the Democratic Party of Korea also dropped, sharply narrowing the gap with the People Power Party.
In a poll of 2,516 people aged 18 and older nationwide conducted on the 12th to the 16th by Realmeter for Energy Economy News, 53.1% rated the president's job performance positively. That was down 3.7 percentage points from a week earlier. The negative rating was 42.2%, up 4.4 percentage points.
Realmeter analyzed that "despite economic and diplomatic achievements such as the KOSPI breaking through the 4,800 level and the Korea-Japan summit, approval trended downward as controversies over morality overlapped, including the ruling bloc's rift with the government exposed over the prosecution reform plan and allegations of nomination fund donations by ruling camp figures."
There was also a major change in party support. In a party support poll of 1,004 people aged 18 and older nationwide on the 15th to the 16th, the Democratic Party of Korea recorded 42.5% and the People Power Party 37.0%. The Democratic Party fell 5.3 percentage points, and the People Power Party rose 3.5 percentage points.
The gap between the two parties narrowed to 5.5 percentage points, within the margin of error. The Reform Party was at 3.3%, the Rebuilding Korea Party at 2.5%, and The Progressive Party at 1.7%.
Realmeter explained, "For the Democratic Party, the expansion of morality controversies due to the full-fledged investigation into alleged nomination fund donations by lawmakers Kang Sun-woo and Kim Byung-kee, combined with party-government conflict amid criticism from hardliners within the party over the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency (Jung Suchung) and the Public Prosecution Office Act, appears to have widened the decline."
The margin of sampling error for the presidential job approval poll is ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, and for the party support poll it is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
The response rate for the presidential job approval poll was 4.5%, and the response rate for the party support poll was 3.8%. For details, see the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.