Gallup Korea's third-week October survey shows Lee at 39% positive, 52% negative; real estate tops disapproval reasons

Democratic Party at 36%, PPP at 27%, a 9-percentage-point gap

47% say opposition should win more seats in next general election

President Lee Jae Myung speaks with Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok at Seoul Airport in Seongnam on Sept. 21. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung speaks with Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok at Seoul Airport in Seongnam on Sept. 21. [Yonhap]

A new poll released Friday showed President Lee Jae Myung's job approval rating edged up, halting a prolonged slide.

However, negative assessments still exceeded 50 percent in the survey, and more respondents said they want the opposition to win seats in the next general election than those who want the ruling party to prevail. The Democratic Party of Korea also edged up but remained stuck in the mid-30 percent range, deepening the challenge facing party leader Kim Min-seok as he seeks to reverse the trend.

According to Gallup Korea's third-week October survey — conducted Tuesday through Thursday among 1,003 registered voters aged 18 and older nationwide — 39 percent gave the president a positive job performance rating while 52 percent gave a negative one. The positive rating rose slightly from the previous week, though the negative rating also climbed 1 percentage point.

The downward trend in presidential job approval that had persisted through the Chuseok holiday came to a halt in October. Still, the negative rating remains above 50 percent.

"Real estate policy" was cited most often as the reason for disapproval, at 19 percent. Real estate has topped the list of reasons for negative assessments every week since the fourth week of July.

"Economic conditions, livelihoods and the stock market" came second at 12 percent, followed by "national defense, security and North Korea policy" at 11 percent. Analysts attributed the rise in economy-related disapproval in part to Kospi's seven consecutive sessions of losses, which pushed the index down from the 7,000 level to around 5,500.

Support for the Democratic Party also edged up in the survey. The party gained 1 percentage point from the previous week to reach 36 percent, recovering from 35 percent the week before. The People Power Party stood at 27 percent, leaving a 9-point gap between the two parties. It was the fourth time since the Lee administration took office that the gap between the two parties had narrowed to within 10 percentage points.

However, support among voters in their 20s and 30s remained at just 18 percent and 22 percent, respectively, leaving youth support as an ongoing challenge for the party.

Particularly notable was the finding on the next general election: more respondents favored a check on the government than support for it. Some 47 percent said opposition candidates should win more seats in the 23rd National Assembly election, scheduled for April 2028, to keep the current government in check — 13 percentage points higher than the 34 percent who said ruling party candidates should win more seats to support the administration.

The gap was even wider in Seoul and the broader metropolitan area. In Seoul, 30 percent backed the pro-government position while 55 percent favored the opposition; in Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, the figures were 31 percent and 52 percent, respectively. In Daejeon, Sejong and the Chungcheong provinces, the opposition-leaning view also led, at 49 percent versus 31 percent.

Across age groups, the preference for checking the government outweighed support for it in every cohort except those in their 40s and 50s. Among voters with no party affiliation, only 16 percent backed the pro-government position while 49 percent favored a check. Among self-described moderates, the split was 36 percent in favor of the government and 44 percent for the opposition.

Since the current administration took office, the Democratic Party has maintained a lead over the People Power Party in party support — yet on the question of the next election outcome, the picture is reversed. With about one year and seven months remaining before the general election, however, it is too early to draw a direct line between current polling and actual results.

Amid these findings, Kim is stepping up his regional outreach to shore up public support. He traveled to Busan on Friday to chair a field session of the party's supreme council and attend a ceremony marking the 47th anniversary of the Buma Democratic Uprising. He also plans to visit a port logistics site being developed as a hub for Arctic shipping routes and hold a meeting with officials there.

Kim had earlier signaled he would make Busan visits a regular fixture, saying he planned to spend "roughly two nights and three days in the Busan area about every two weeks." With boosting approval ratings and broadening the party's base emerging as pressing tasks, he appears to be doubling down on grassroots outreach centered on regional visits.

The survey was conducted via telephone interviews using random samples drawn from virtual numbers provided by the three major mobile carriers. The response rate was 10.4 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. For more details, visit the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.


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