Gallup Korea puts president's approval at 54%, up 3 percentage points; analysts point to '3 mega-projects' announcement worth 1,500 trillion won

Gap between ruling and opposition party support, which had narrowed to 12 points after the June 3 local elections, widens again to 15 points this week

President Lee Jae Myung speaks at the fifth National Space Council meeting in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, on Thursday. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung speaks at the fifth National Space Council meeting in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, on Thursday. [Yonhap]

Approval ratings for President Lee Jae Myung and the Democratic Party of Korea, which had been sliding steadily since the June 3 local elections, showed a modest recovery this week. Analysts attribute the rebound in part to the announcement of the "3 mega-projects" initiative.

A Gallup Korea survey conducted June 30 through Wednesday among 1,005 registered voters aged 18 and older nationwide via telephone interview found 54 percent gave Lee a positive job-performance rating while 36 percent rated him negatively. (For further details, see the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.)

Lee's approval had stood at 64 percent in the third week of May, just before the June 3 local elections, before falling to 57 percent in the second week of June and then to 51 percent in the fourth week of June. This week's survey marks a 3-percentage-point recovery.

Gallup Korea said the share of respondents citing the economy as a reason for positive approval had grown, and that regional balanced development had newly appeared as a factor mentioned by both supporters and critics. "This appears to reflect the impact of the '3 mega-projects' announcement, which outlined corporate investment plans worth 1,500 trillion won in semiconductors, physical AI and AI data centers," the pollster said.

A separate NBS survey — conducted June 29 through Tuesday by Macromill Embrain, K-Stat Research, Korea Research and Hankook Research among 1,000 registered voters aged 18 and older nationwide via telephone interview — found 58 percent gave Lee a positive assessment of his job performance, while 35 percent rated him negatively.

Lee's approval in the NBS poll had stood at 66 percent in the third week of May before dropping sharply to 57 percent in the second week of June following the elections. This week's NBS results suggest the downward trend has halted.

The gap in party support, which had narrowed after the June 3 local elections, also appears to be widening again. In Gallup Korea's third-week-of-May survey, the Democratic Party polled at 45 percent against the People Power Party's 22 percent, a gap of 23 percentage points. That margin had narrowed to 12 points in the second week of June, immediately after the elections, but widened again to 15 points in this week's survey.

The NBS poll showed a similar trend: the inter-party gap, which had been 28 percentage points just before the elections, narrowed to 16 points immediately after, then widened again to 22 points this week.


sunpine@heraldcorp.com