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President Lee Jae-myung presides over a meeting with senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae on the 11th. / Yonhap News

President Lee Jae-myung's job approval rating fell for a ninth consecutive week to hit a fresh low of 33.8%, according to an opinion poll released on the 14th.

In particular, approval among people in their 20s plunged to 18.6%, slipping into the 10% range for the first time since he took office.

While President Lee nominated Yong Hye-in as Minister of Gender Equality and Family to win over voters in their 20s and 30s, observers assess that controversies surrounding fairness, including holding a cabinet seat concurrently with a proportional representation seat in parliament, have instead dragged ratings down further.

According to a survey of 2,515 adults nationwide conducted by Realmeter from the 7th to the 11th at the request of the Energy Economy News, positive evaluations of President Lee's state administration dropped 3.6 percentage points from the previous week to 33.8%.

Negative evaluations rose 3.8 percentage points to 63.3%. The proportion of respondents answering that they did not know stood at 2.9%.

Broken down by age group, approval among those aged 18 to 29 plummeted 10.2 percentage points from a week earlier to 18.6%. Support dropped to the teens among both men in their 20s at 19.6% and women in their 20s at 17.6%.

Approval among respondents in their 30s fell 2.8 percentage points to 27.0%.

Ratings among those in their 60s slid 4.1 percentage points to 35.4%, while support among those aged 70 and older dropped 3.6 percentage points to 34.0%. Approval among those in their 50s also dipped 1.3 percentage points to 42.6%.

By region, support across Busan, Ulsan, and South Gyeongsang Province fell 9.1 percentage points to a regional low of 27.3%. Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province at 22.6% (down 6.8 percentage points) and Daejeon, Sejong, and the Chungcheong provinces at 29.2% (down 6.5 percentage points) also recorded ratings in the 20% range. Support across South Jeolla, Gwangju, and North Jeolla stood at 55.9%, down 5.5 percentage points from the previous week.

Realmeter analyzed that despite recent diplomatic engagements through bilateral summits, negative sentiment expanded around key state issues—such as cabinet reshuffle controversies, deliberations over troop deployments to Hormuz, and uncertainties surrounding real estate policy—which, combined with considerable defections among progressives and youth in their 20s, accelerated the slide in ratings.

In a separate survey on party support ratings conducted from the 10th to the 11th among 1,003 adults nationwide, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea dropped 5.7 percentage points from the previous week to 36.1%, while the main opposition People Power Party gained 4.5 percentage points to reach 42.1%. This marked a reversal in party standings roughly two months after the poll conducted on June 25 and 26.

Both surveys were conducted via automated telephone responses using wireless numbers. The presidential job performance rating poll carried a margin of error of plus or minus 2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with a response rate of 4.5%. The party approval rating poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with a response rate of 3.6%. Further details are available on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.

                                                                                                            Hong Sun-mi