Lee's approval rating edges up above 60 pct

Lead

SEOUL — President Lee Jae Myung’s job approval rating has moved back above 60 percent in recent surveys, according to polling reported by Yonhap News. Separate polls by Gallup Korea and Realmeter, covered in Yonhap dispatches dated May 11, May 18 and May 22, recorded positive assessments ranging from just under 60 percent to 64 percent, with gains attributed largely to economic and livelihood policies and a strong stock market rally.

A Gallup Korea survey published Friday and reported by Yonhap put Lee’s positive rating at 64 percent, up 3 percentage points from the previous week, with negative assessments steady at 28 percent. Earlier Realmeter surveys commissioned by EKN newspaper showed a slight rebound to 59.7 percent in one reading and a climb to 60.5 percent in another, restoring a level above 60 percent after a brief dip.

Coverage comparison

Coverage of the trend rests on Yonhap reports of different pollsters and fieldwork windows rather than a single unified figure. One Yonhap account focused on Gallup Korea’s midweek sample of 1,002 adults, highlighting a rebound to 64 percent and broad geographic strength, with approval above 50 percent in all major cities and provinces and peaking at 89 percent in Gwangju and Jeolla Province. Other Yonhap reports drew on Realmeter fieldwork for EKN: one among 2,007 respondents put the positive share at 59.7 percent, up 0.2 point, while a later Realmeter survey of 2,506 respondents showed 60.5 percent, up 0.8 point, after the rating had slipped to 59.5 percent the week before that earlier Realmeter release.

Framing across the Yonhap pieces consistently tied the movement to economic performance—stock-index gains, livelihood policies, and in one case a record current-account surplus—while also listing political and corporate factors that pollsters said partly offset the gains. Party support figures differed by survey and week: Gallup showed the ruling Democratic Party unchanged at 45 percent and the People Power Party at 22 percent; Realmeter party readings in the same period moved in both directions depending on the sample, with the Democratic Party still ahead of the main opposition.

Margins of error were reported as plus or minus 3.1 points for the Gallup survey and the smaller Realmeter party poll, about 2.2 points for the 2,007-person Realmeter job-approval sample, and about 2 points for the 2,506-person Realmeter sample, all at 95 percent confidence.

Key claims

• Gallup Korea, as reported by Yonhap, found Lee’s positive job rating at 64 percent, up 3 points week on week, with negatives unchanged at 28 percent (sample 1,002; margin ±3.1 points).
• Realmeter for EKN, per Yonhap, recorded 59.7 percent positive (up 0.2 point) and later 60.5 percent positive (up 0.8 point), after a prior slip to 59.5 percent; negatives were reported near 35–36 percent in those Realmeter releases.
• Yonhap’s Gallup report said economic and livelihood policies were the top cited reason for positive views (24 percent), followed by diplomacy (12 percent) and competency (7 percent); top negative reasons included concerns over excessive welfare and subsidies (13 percent) and economic or livelihood difficulties and high foreign-exchange rates (11 percent).
• Realmeter, according to Yonhap, linked gains to a strong stock rally—references included the Korea Composite Stock Price Index moving above the 7,500 and later 8,000 marks—and to economic results such as a record current-account surplus, as well as Lee’s visit to Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province related to a planned civilian-military airport.
• The same Realmeter commentary, carried by Yonhap, said offsets included the National Assembly’s failure to pass a constitutional amendment bill amid party standoff, controversy over remarks by presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom on profit-sharing or “public dividends” tied to semiconductor-related tax revenues, and concern about a possible strike at Samsung Electronics after wage talks broke down.
• Gallup, per Yonhap, found approval above 50 percent in all major cities and provinces, highest in Gwangju and Jeolla at 89 percent, then Daejeon–Sejong–Chungcheong at 65 percent and Seoul at 63 percent.
• Separate party and local-election preference questions in the Gallup survey, as reported by Yonhap, showed 46 percent favoring Democratic Party candidates in the following month’s local elections versus 33 percent for opposition candidates.

Perspectives

Economic and livelihood emphasis. Pollsters and the Yonhap accounts that cited them presented the uptick as driven mainly by public reaction to market and livelihood signals: stock-index milestones, current-account strength, and stated approval of economic and daily-life policies. In the Gallup breakdown reported by Yonhap, economy and livelihood reasons outpaced diplomacy and personal competency among those giving positive marks.

Political and institutional friction. Realmeter commentary carried by Yonhap treated legislative deadlock—specifically the collapse of an effort to put a constitutional change to a national vote around the June 3 local elections, opposed by the People Power Party—as a factor that limited how far positive economic news could lift the rating. Party support figures in the same period remained polarized, with the Democratic Party ahead but opposition numbers moving week to week depending on the poll.

Corporate and policy controversy. Yonhap’s Realmeter-based reporting also pointed to backlash over Kim Yong-beom’s comments on sharing gains from an AI- and semiconductor-driven boom, and to anxiety about labor unrest at Samsung Electronics, as partial counters to the approval gains. Those elements were presented as concurrent headwinds rather than as the dominant drivers of the headline numbers.

Regional pattern. The Gallup geography reported by Yonhap underscored uneven but broadly majority support: very high backing in the southwest, solid majorities in the central region and Seoul, and a floor above 50 percent nationwide in major administrative units—context for reading a national figure in the low-to-mid 60s as consistent with widespread, if not uniform, approval.

Taken together, the Yonhap-reported polls describe a modest rebound centered on economic sentiment, measured by different firms over successive weeks in May, with explicit acknowledgment by pollsters that political deadlock and corporate controversy blunted some of the upside. Figures are not identical across houses or dates; readers should treat 59.7 percent, 60.5 percent and 64 percent as separate survey snapshots rather than a single revised official rating.