South Korean President Lee's approval rating edges up to 62 per cent on positive views of his diplomacy: poll

SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating inched up to 62 per cent this week marking six months in office, amid positive public sentiment over his diplomacy, a poll showed Friday.

The survey by Gallup Korea, conducted Tuesday through Thursday on 1,000 respondents aged 18 and over, showed that 62 per cent gave a good assessment of Lee's overall performance, up 2 percentage points from the previous two weeks, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Twenty-nine per cent gave a negative view, down from last week's 29 per cent, while 8 per cent withheld their evaluation.

Diplomacy topped all other areas of state affairs among the reasons cited for positive assessments, accounting for 32 per cent, followed by 14 per cent who pointed to his leadership in managing the economy and livelihood issues.

Negative assessments, which came to 18 per cent, were mostly driven by views critical of his performance on the economy and livelihood matters. Others pointed to moral concerns related to his trials, among other factors.

Thursday marked 100 days since he took office in a snap election in June, triggered by the ouster of former President Yoon Suk Yeol over his attempted imposition of martial law on December 3.

Compared with the approval ratings of former presidents at the six-month mark of their terms, Lee ranked third, behind former President Kim Young-sam's 84 per cent and former President Moon Jae-in's 74 per cent.

The approval rating for the ruling Democratic Party came to 43 per cent, while that of the main opposition People Power Party stood at 24 per cent.

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

On Thursday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung instructed his aides to come up with measures to stabilise prices and ease people's financial burdens.

Lee made the remark during a meeting with his senior secretaries and aides, as last month's consumer prices rose 2.4 per cent from a year earlier, missing the Bank of Korea's 2 per cent target for the third consecutive month.

"As perceived inflation has risen recently, it is placing a considerable burden on people's livelihoods," he said during the meeting at the presidential office.

"I ask relevant ministries to thoroughly inspect the supply-demand situation of key consumer items and preemptively mobilise policy measures to stabilise prices."

Lee again urged his aides to check for cases where prices are raised through unfair fixing or unfair profits are made by abusing monopolistic power.

Despite difficult conditions at home and abroad, Lee said the country's exports have given hope to the people, with the annual total expected to hit a record high of USD 700 billion this year.

"This is thanks to our businesspeople and workers who have gathered their strengths to develop products and open new markets without bowing to the wave of protectionism, as well as the efforts of public officials who supported that," he said.

Lee stressed the need to nurture cutting-edge industries at a time of continued trade uncertainties, using practical trade policies centred on the national interest.

He also called for efforts to diversify export routes and widen the "economic territory" through cooperation with emerging and developing countries grouped under the "Global South."