Lee's approval rating rises for second consecutive week to 48.9%: Poll

President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating climbed for the second straight week to 48.9 percent, driven by positive sentiment over his diplomacy, a poll showed on Monday.

The rating was up 1.9 percentage points from the previous week while the negative assessment fell 1.5 percentage points to 47.7 percent, according to the survey conducted by Realmeter and commissioned by the EKN newspaper.

Realmeter attributed the rise to Lee’s diplomatic and security achievements, including his participation in the NATO summit and a series of bilateral meetings held on the sidelines, which the pollster said helped elevate Korea-NATO defense cooperation.

Lee attended the NATO summit on Tuesday and Wednesday in his first appearance at the annual gathering since taking office in June last year.

The latest survey was conducted on 2,515 adults from July 6 through Friday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, with a confidence level of 95 percent.

In a separate survey by the same pollster on 1,002 individuals aged 18 and over on Thursday and Friday, the approval rating for the ruling Democratic Party rose 1.8 percentage points from a week earlier to 44.8 percent.

The approval rating for the main opposition People Power Party fell 2.2 percentage points to 38.1 percent.

That poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, with a confidence level of 95 percent.

Yonhap