Yoon's approval rating falls to a record-low 28 percent

Politics

Published: 31 Jul. 2022, 15:02 Updated: 31 Jul. 2022, 17:40

Yoon's approval rating falls to a record-low 28 percent

President Yoon Suk-yeol heads to a ceremony to receive credentials from ambassadors at the presidential office in Yongsan District, central Seoul, Friday, after a poll that day showed his approval ratings dropped below 30 percent for the first time since his inauguration. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating plummeted to an all-time low of 28 percent less than three months after his inauguration.

According to a survey of 1,000 people 18 and older conducted last Tuesday to Thursday and released by Gallup Korea Friday, 62 percent of respondents disapproved of how Yoon was handling state affairs. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

This marks the first time Yoon's approval dropped below 30 percent since he was inaugurated on May 10.

Yoon's approval rating, which has been on the decline, was down 4 percentage points from 32 percent last week. This compares to 53 percent support for the president in the second week of June.

The first time former President Park Geun-hye's approval ratings dropped below 30 percent was in the fourth week of January 2015, two years after taking office.

President Moon Jae-in's approval ratings fell below 30 percent for the first time in the fifth week of April 2021, near the end of his five-year term.

Of respondents who disapproved of Yoon's performance in the Gallup Korea survey, 21 percent cited questions about personnel appointments. The health and welfare minister position is vacant after two failed nominations, and Yoon has also faced allegations of hiring of relatives and acquaintances to the presidential office. A lack experience or qualifications or incompetence; ignoring the economy and people's livelihoods; and his unilateral tendencies each came in at eight percent.

Other reasons for disapproval included lack of communication, establishing a new police oversight bureau in the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and political infighting in Yoon's People Power Party (PPP).

According to Gallup Korea, this week's poll newly added as options as reasons for disapproval his administration's decision to form a police oversight bureau giving the interior minister better control over police and the internal conflict within the PPP amplified by leaked text messages between Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the party's acting chairman and floor leader, and Yoon.

When asked about their views about establishing a police bureau, 51 percent replied that it was an "excessive measure to control police," compared to 18 percent who said it was "a measure to keep in check police authority."

Of the respondents, 59 percent said that a meeting of police superintendents on July 23 to protest the creation of the oversight bureau was "a justified expression of their opinion," compared to 26 percent who described it as an "inappropriate collective action," echoing the sentiments of the Yoon administration. Yoon himself called the police meeting a "breach of state discipline" last week.

Support for the PPP and the liberal Democratic Party (DP) were both at 36 percent, the first time their approval ratings have been tied in a Gallup poll since the Yoon administration took office. Approval of the PPP fell 3 percentage points from last week's survey, while the DP's rose by 3 percentage points.

On Tuesday, media took photographs of private text messages sent by Yoon to Kweon over an instant messaging app that appeared to take a jab at Lee Jun-seok, the PPP's suspended chairman facing sexual bribery allegations, an incident which further cemented the internal rift and factionalism in the party.

The steep decline in Yoon's approval rating amid internal feuding has sent the PPP reeling, with several lawmakers stepping down from the party's Supreme Council in a call for leadership reform.

"The presidential office staffers are all contemplating the complex reasons for the ups and downs in approval ratings and how we can do better," said a presidential official in a briefing Friday on the dismal survey results. "However, rather than doing anything to increase the approval ratings, I believe that we should do better and work harder at what we were initially trying to do. If we quietly keep at it, the time will come when the public will once again reconsider our sincerity and what we want to do."

Yoon is set to go on a five-day summer vacation starting Monday, which would be an opportunity to rest and contemplate on how to manage state affairs, according to the official.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]