hankyoreh

South Korean President Moon Jae-in. (Blue House photo pool)

South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating has dropped for the seventh consecutive week, hitting its lowest point in four months. The drop in this poll was driven by progressive voters, including supporters of the Justice Party.

A poll conducted by Real Meter at the request of YTN found on July 13 that Moon received the approval of 48.7% of South Koreans, down 1.1 points from the previous week. That was the lowest rating in four months, since Moon hit 49.3% in the third week of March. The poll, which surveyed 2,515 adults between July 6-10, had a sampling error of plus or minus two percentage points with 95% reliability.

The poll found that Moon’s sagging support was driven by defections from Justice Party supporters and other progressives. Among Justice Party supporters, Moon’s approval rating plunged 18.7 points from the previous week to 47.1%, while his approval stood at 73.6%, down 4.4 points, among progressives overall.

Negative views of Moon’s job as president edged up 1 percentage point to 46.5%. That narrows the gap between positive and negative assessments to 2.2 points, within the margin of error.

“Since news about the death of late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon was only reflected in one day of polling, on July 10, we think that had a limited impact on the overall result. His death will be reflected in our next poll,” a source at Real Meter told the Hankyoreh.

“The steady decline in Moon’s approval rating is presumably affected by factors including real estate policy, the controversy over upgrading contract employees to regular employees at Incheon International Airport, and the lack of progress in inter-Korean relations,” the source said.

In terms of party support, the ruling Democratic Party bounced back 1.4 point from last week, rising to 39.7%. The United Future Party (UFP) dipped 0.4 points to 29.7%, slipping below the 30% mark. The Justice Party was supported by 5.9% of respondents, the Open Democratic Party by 5.1%, and the People’s Party by 2.9%, while 14.0% of respondents didn’t support any party.

A summary of the poll and more detailed results can be found on the websites of Real Meter and the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.

By Jang Na-rye, staff reporter

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