Yoon's disapproval rating over 60 pct again: poll

Politics 13:20 July 18, 2022

SEOUL, July 18 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk-yeol's disapproval rating has again surpassed the 60 percent mark, a poll showed Monday.

In the poll of 2,519 voters nationwide conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Friday last week, 33.4 percent approved of the way Yoon is handling state affairs, down 3.6 percentage points from the previous week, while 63.3 percent negatively assessed his performance, up 6.3 percentage points.

Yoon's disapproval rating also breached the threshold in two opinion polls released by different pollsters -- Rnsearch and the Korea Society Opinion Institute -- last week.

In the Realmeter poll, negative assessment rose among all groups of respondents by age, region and political inclination, except for those living in the southeastern North Gyeongsang Province and those in their 20s.

The poll also showed that the favorability rating of Yoon's People Power Party (PPP) fell for the seventh consecutive week to 39.1 percent, while that of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) increased for the seventh straight week to 44.2 percent.

This marks the first time the DP outstripped the PPP with an approval rating wider than the margin of error since the third week of January 2021.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

"Normally, if there is a steep fall in approval rating, the president and the ruling party come up with responding measures and supporters rally around to prevent a further decline, but the latest poll showed no such signs," a Realmeter analyst said.