Approval down 2 percentage points from previous survey; disapproval at 47%

Rebuilding Korea Party at 4%, Reform Party at 1%, Progressive Party at 1%

President Lee Jae Myung (right) shakes hands with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong at a groundbreaking ceremony for a Chungcheong region mega-project at the Samsung Electronics Onyang Campus construction site in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, on Thursday. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung (right) shakes hands with Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong at a groundbreaking ceremony for a Chungcheong region mega-project at the Samsung Electronics Onyang Campus construction site in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, on Thursday. [Yonhap]

A poll released Thursday showed that 44 percent of respondents gave a positive assessment of President Lee Jae Myung's job performance, edging down from the previous survey.

According to the National Barometer Survey (NBS) conducted by Macromill Embrain, KStat Research, Korea Research and Hankook Research from Monday through Wednesday among 1,001 adults aged 18 and older, the share of respondents who rated Lee's performance positively came in at 44 percent — down 2 percentage points from the survey conducted two weeks earlier.

The share giving a negative assessment rose 3 percentage points to 47 percent.

By age group, negative assessments outweighed positive ones in all age brackets except those in their 40s and 50s. By region, 34 percent of Seoul respondents gave a positive rating while 54 percent gave a negative one. In Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, 47 percent responded positively and 43 percent negatively.

By ideological leaning, those who identified as progressive gave a positive rating of 77 percent, while conservatives gave a negative rating of 78 percent. Among moderates, negative assessments (46 percent) slightly outpaced positive ones (43 percent).

When asked whether they trusted Lee's handling of state affairs, 47 percent said they did and 47 percent said they did not.

Meanwhile, party support stood at 35 percent for the Democratic Party of Korea and 25 percent for the People Power Party. Compared with the previous survey, the Democratic Party slipped 1 percentage point while the People Power Party held steady. The Rebuilding Korea Party polled at 4 percent, the Reform Party at 1 percent and the Progressive Party at 1 percent. Those withholding judgment accounted for 33 percent.

The NBS poll also asked respondents which party they thought would handle policy better. The Democratic Party led in every area except real estate policy.

On real estate policy, the People Power Party came in at 34 percent against the Democratic Party's 29 percent. The Democratic Party led on welfare policy (45 percent vs. 21 percent), foreign affairs and trade policy (40 percent vs. 28 percent), inter-Korean relations and security policy (38 percent vs. 34 percent), and employment policy (37 percent vs. 25 percent).

Compared with the second-week November 2025 survey conducted a year earlier, however, the Democratic Party's numbers fell and the People Power Party's rose across all policy areas, narrowing the gap between the two parties.

The NBS survey was conducted entirely via mobile phone virtual numbers using telephone interviews. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level, and the response rate was 14.3 percent. Further details are available on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.


bigroot@heraldcorp.com