President Lee Jae Myung's Approval Rating Declines Slightly

SEOUL, July 10 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating declined this week after rebounding in the previous week's poll, a survey showed Friday.

In a survey conducted by Gallup Korea from Tuesday through Thursday on 1,002 people aged 18 and older, 53 percent approved of the way Lee managed state affairs, down 1 percentage point from a week earlier.

Lee's approval rating rebounded to 54 percent in last week's survey after hitting its lowest level in late June.

Thirty-five percent of all respondents disapproved of the president's performance, down 1 percentage point from the previous week.

Lee's handling of the economy and people's livelihoods was cited most frequently as the reason for the positive evaluation at 19 percent, followed by diplomacy at 17 percent and overall performance at 10 percent.

The pollster did not provide a reason for the decline in his approval rating, although the respondents most frequently cited concerns over the economy, people's livelihoods and the foreign exchange rate as the reason for their negative assessments of Lee, at 21 percent.

On the government's "three mega projects" initiative, 57 percent of respondents said it was expected to contribute to balanced regional development, while 26 percent said it would widen regional disparities.

The recently unveiled initiative calls for large-scale investments by chip giants Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., as well as other companies, in semiconductors, physical artificial intelligence (AI) and AI data centers.

In the same survey, the ruling Democratic Party's approval rose 1 percentage point to 42 percent, while that of the main opposition People Power Party dropped 2 percentage points to 24 percent.

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.