President Lee Jae Myung speaks while presiding over a Cabinet meeting at the Blue House on the 30th. Kim Chang-gil reporter

In Kyunghyang Shinmun's New Year and 80th-anniversary poll, President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating, more than six months after taking office, stood at 57%. Positive evaluations were prevalent regarding overall capacity to manage state affairs, while negative views were raised mainly in the economic domain, notably the recent surge in the exchange rate.

Commissioned by Kyunghyang Shinmun, Korea Gallup asked 1,010 adults nationwide aged 18 or older on the 26~27th to evaluate President Lee's job performance; 57% answered ‘doing a good job’, and 35% said ‘doing a poor job’. Compared with Korea Gallup's previous survey released on the 19th, the positive rating rose by 2 percentage points, and the negative fell by 1 percentage point.

In the first Korea Gallup survey after his election in June, his approval stood at 64%. Over the subsequent six months, it fluctuated weekly between 54~65%, ending his first year in office in the high-50% range.

Support was highest among those in their 40s (75%), followed by those in their 50s (73%), 60s (56%), 30s (48%), 70 and older (46%), and ages 18~29 (36%). Compared with the previous survey, those in their 50·60s each rose by 6 percentage points, the largest increases, while those in their 30s fell the most, by 7 percentage points. Among men, support was 52%, down 7 percentage points, while among women it was 61%, up 10 percentage points.

By region, the figures were Gwangju·Jeolla (83%), Gangwon (63%), Busan·Ulsan·Gyeongnam (59%), Incheon·Gyeonggi (58%), Daejeon·Sejong·Chungcheong (58%), Jeju (54%), Seoul (47%), and Daegu·Gyeongbuk (37%). Compared with the previous survey, Busan·Ulsan·Gyeongnam rose by 15 percentage points, the largest increase, while Daegu·Gyeongbuk fell by 11 percentage points, the largest decline. Seoul fell by 5 percentage points.

By political orientation, 85% of progressives, 58% of moderates, and 31% of conservatives supported President Lee. Support among progressives was the same as in the previous survey, and among conservatives it rose by 2 percentage points. Among moderates it fell by 2 percentage points, but was 1 percentage point higher than President Lee's overall average approval (57%).

Reasons for positive assessments of President Lee focused largely on his overall capacity to manage state affairs. The most frequent was ‘manages state affairs well and has strong ability to perform duties’ at 12%. ‘Transparent conduct of work, such as publishing work reports and Cabinet meetings’ and ‘does well overall’ followed at 11% each. ‘Does well in diplomacy’ was 9%, ‘communicates well with the public’ 6%, and ‘does well on economic policy’ and ‘does better than the previous administration’ were 4% each.

Reasons for negative assessments were cited mainly in the economic sphere. The largest share, 14%, answered ‘the exchange rate has risen and the won has weakened’, pointing to the recent sharp volatility in the exchange rate. ‘Does poorly overall’ was 9%, ‘dislike economic policies’ 8%, ‘authoritarian·dictatorial’ 5%, ‘the economy is weak and prices have risen’ 4%, ‘does not cooperate with the opposition’ 4%, and ‘dislike his pro-China orientation·policies’ 3%.