South Korean President Lee's approval rating falls to 57 per cent

Seoul, Aug 21 (IANS) South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating fell to 57 per cent, a survey showed on Thursday, amid negative sentiment over his special pardons for political figures.

In a National Barometer Survey (NBS) conducted from Monday to Wednesday, the positive assessment of Lee's performance declined 8 percentage points from the previous poll conducted two weeks ago, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The negative assessment of Lee rose 9 percentage points to 33 per cent, surpassing the 30 per cent mark for the first time in NBS polls.

The approval rating for the ruling Democratic Party fell 4 percentage points to 40 per cent.

Support for the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) added 3 percentage points to 19 per cent, slightly rebounding after hitting a record low of 16 per cent in the previous survey. The approval rating for the PPP has remained below 20 per cent for seven consecutive weeks.

In the same survey, 54 per cent of the respondents gave a negative assessment of Lee's special pardon of high-profile figures on Liberation Day last week, including former Justice Minister Cho Kuk and former Rep. Youn Mee-hyang.

Cho, who formerly headed the Rebuilding Korea Party and had served as a justice minister in 2019, was serving a two-year prison term after the Supreme Court in December upheld his conviction for academic fraud involving his children and unlawful interference with a government inspection. He was released from prison last Friday.

Youn was convicted of embezzling funds donated to help support women who were forced into wartime sexual slavery by Japan during World War II.

The survey was conducted by pollsters Embrain Public, Kstat Research, Korea Research, and Hankook Research on 1,001 people aged 18 and older.

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

--IANS

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