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President Lee's approval rating drops to record low 51.1% after two-week slide

Published: 18 Aug. 2025, 16:11 Updated: 18 Aug. 2025, 17:32

President Lee Jae Myung presides over a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul, on Aug. 18. [YONHAP]

President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating has dropped for the second straight week, sinking to a record low of 51.1 percent, a poll showed Monday. The slide comes amid growing controversy over his Liberation Day pardons.

The survey, conducted by pollster Realmeter on 2,003 voters aged 18 or older nationwide between Monday and Thursday last week, found that 51.1 percent of respondents gave a positive assessment of Lee’s handling of state affairs.

The figure marks a 5.4 percentage point drop from the previous week and is the lowest since Lee took office. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level.

The negative assessment — those who responded that Lee was “doing a poor job” — rose 6.3 percentage points from the previous week to 44.5 percent. Another 4.5 percent answered that they “didn’t know.”

Realmeter attributed the dip to multiple factors, including disappointment over the special pardons, controversy over the capital gains tax on stocks and the political burden of both the president and first lady being in detention — an unprecedented situation in the country’s constitutional history.

“The administration’s policies centered on hard-line Democratic Party supporters also appear to have driven away centrist voters,” the pollster said.

In response, the presidential office said it is listening to public sentiment and will act accordingly. Spokesperson Kang Yoo‑jung told reporters Monday that the Lee Jae Myung government "is always listening to the voices of the people, and we are on a journey to consider specific ways to practically improve the lives of the people."

President Lee Jae Myung leaves a theater in Seoul on Aug. 17 after watching the documentary ″La Resistance.″ [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

In a separate Realmeter poll on party approval ratings, conducted last Wednesday and Thursday on 1,001 voters nationwide, the liberal Democratic Party (DP) polled at 39.9 percent while the conservative People Power Party (PPP) came in at 36.7 percent.

The DP saw a sharp decline of 8.5 percentage points from the previous week, dropping below the 40 percent mark for the first time in seven months. Meanwhile, the PPP gained 6.4 percentage points, narrowing the gap with the DP to within the margin of error.

The Rebuilding Korea Party rose by 1.7 percentage points to 5.7 percent, followed by the splinter conservative Reform Party at 4.4 percent and the left-wing Progressive Party at 0.9 percent.

Both polls were conducted via automated telephone response. The response rate was 5.2 percent for the presidential approval survey and 4.7 percent for the party approval survey.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JEONG HYE-JEONG [[email protected]]