President Lee Jae-myung's job approval recovered to the 60% range. Support for the Democratic Party of Korea also rose to the 50% range.
In a survey by Realmeter commissioned by Energy Economics News of 2,513 voters ages 18 and older nationwide from the 9th to the 13th, the positive assessment of President Lee's job performance came in at 60.3%. That was up 2.1 percentage points from the previous week's survey. The negative assessment was 35.0%, down 2.1 percentage points, and 4.7% responded "don't know."
This is the first time in seven months since the fifth week of July last year that President Lee's approval rating reached 60% in a Realmeter survey. Realmeter said, "As the Middle East situation worsened, sending oil prices soaring and heightening inflation concerns, the government's swift rollout of preemptive economic and livelihood measures such as a 'cap on oil prices' and an 'early extra budget' appears to have served as a driving force for the ratings."
In a party support survey of 1,005 voters ages 18 and older nationwide on the 12th and 13th, the Democratic Party of Korea's support stood at 50.5%, up 2.4 percentage points from the previous week. In contrast, the People Power Party recorded 31.9%, down 0.5 percentage points. The gap between the two parties widened from 15.7 percentage points to 18.6 percentage points.
Realmeter explained, "It appears that the effects of the government's livelihood policies carried over to the ruling party, and the People Power Party's internal strife worked as a windfall."
In particular, support for the Democratic Party of Korea in Seoul jumped by 10.9 percentage points. Realmeter interpreted, "Along with the consolidation of the ruling camp following Chong Won-o's declaration to run for Seoul mayor, Oh Se-hoon's refusal of the nomination appears to have led some People Power Party supporters to shift to the Democratic Party of Korea."
Both surveys were conducted using an automated response system on wireless phones.
The margin of error for the presidential job approval survey was plus or minus 2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with a response rate of 5.4%. For the party support survey, the margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with a response rate of 4.3%. For details, refer to the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.