President Yoon Suk-yeol sees slight drop in his approval rating

Social Affairs

Published: 07 Nov. 2022, 12:29 Updated: 07 Nov. 2022, 12:30

President Yoon Suk-yeol sees slight drop in his approval rating

President Yoon Suk-yeol pays respects at a mourning altar for victims of the Itaewon tragedy at Seoul Plaza, near City Hall, in central Seoul, on Saturday morning. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

President Yoon Suk-yeol saw a slight drop in his approval rating, according to an opinion poll conducted last week by Realmeter.

Yoon’s approval rating dropped 1.5 percentage points to 34.2 percent while his disapproval rating rose 0.7 percentage points to 62.4 percent.

The drop was big in the area of Seoul, in particular, where the Itaewon crowd crush occurred. The Itaewon tragedy claimed 156 lives on the night of Oct. 29, including 26 foreigners, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters, as of Monday morning.

Yoon's support rating plunged 7.3 percentage points to 39.8 percent in this area.

Approval from those in their 50s fell 6.2 percentage points to 27.3 percent. This age range is considered as the parent group, which was deemed to have been majorly affected by the Itaewon tragedy.

Those in their 20s and 70s also showed less support with approval ratings dropping 1.9 and 1.6 percentage points each.

By gender, approval from both women and men dropped. Approval from women fell 1.5 percentage points to 33.8 percent and those from men 1.4 percentage points to 34.7 percent.

In terms of daily ratings, the approval rating fell from 35.7 percent last Tuesday to 32.5 percent on Friday.

“It is inevitable for the government and the People Power Party to see a drop in approvals from such major casualties,” said Bae Cheol-ho, a senior analyst at Realmeter.

“The reason why the drop was less than the drop in the president’s approval rating when the Sewol ferry tragedy took place would be due to defense issues such as North Korea’s missile launches.”

Former president Park Geun-hye’s support rating plunged 11.8 percentage points following the Sewol ferry tragedy in a Realmeter poll.

Bae added that the sluggish police response and the public criticism of Interior Minister Lee Sang-min’s remarks over the Itaewon tragedy could have contributed to the steeper fall over the week.

The Realmeter poll commissioned by Media Tribune surveyed 2,521 voters from Monday to Friday last week and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

BY BAE JAE-SUNG, CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]