A poll found that President Lee Jae-myung's job approval hit its lowest level since taking office.
In a survey Realmeter conducted for Energy Economy News of 2,511 people ages 18 and older nationwide on the 10th to 14th, the positive assessment of President Lee's job performance was tallied at 43.0%. In Realmeter's survey, Lee's approval fell for five straight weeks, hitting a post-inauguration low.
The negative assessment was 54.1%, up 1.1 percentage points from the previous week. "Don't know" was 2.9%.
Realmeter analyzed that "confusion over the real estate tax reform plan and backlash in youth housing sentiment triggered by the controversy over the scrapped-bus youth housing remark overlapped, accumulating a decline in policy credibility that led to a drop in positive assessments."
In a party support survey of 1,004 people ages 18 and older nationwide on the 13th to 14th, the Democratic Party of Korea recorded 47.9% and the People Power Party 33.1%, respectively. The Democratic Party rose 3.3 percentage points, while the People Power Party fell 4.5 percentage points.
Realmeter analyzed that "as the party convention draws near, the convention effect has come into full swing and strengthened cohesion among party members and supporters, which appears to have driven the rise for the Democratic Party."
On the People Power Party's decline, it explained, "Although it mounted attacks criticizing the government's confusion over the real estate tax reform plan, it failed to translate into clear gains. Rather, intensifying internal strife dampened support, and simultaneous weakening of approval among conservatives and in regional bases led to the drop."
Both surveys were conducted using automated response on mobile phones.
The presidential job approval survey had a margin of error of ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level and a response rate of 4.0%. The party support survey had a margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level and a response rate of 3.5%. For details, see the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.