| President Moon Jae-in / Yonhap |
President Moon Jae-in's approval rating plunged to 44.8 percent, the lowest in nine months, as an increased number of people in their 30s, especially women, have turned their backs on the liberal-minded president, a poll showed Monday.
In a five-day survey on 2,516 adults nationwide through last Friday, the rating dropped 3.9 percentage points from a week earlier, according to Realmeter. It marks the lowest since 41.4 percent in the second week of October last year, when South Korea was in the midst of huge political rifts over Moon's appointment of Cho Kuk, one of his closest aides, as justice minister. Cho and his family were accused of having made illegal or unfair financial gains and received favors in schooling.
Moon's disapproval rating hit an eight-month high at 51 percent, up 4.5 percentage points on week. The margin of error is plus and minus 2.0 percentage points.
The poll results showed negative assessments of Moon's presidency surpassing positive ones in what political analysts here call a "dead cross."
Notably, Moon's job approval among people in their 30s plummeted 14.4 percentage points to 42.6 percent. His favorable rating among female voters dived 6.6 percentage points to 44.1 percent.
Women and those in their 30s and 40s are Moon's traditional core base.
His latest approval rating seems to have been affected by controversies over the abrupt death of Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, his Democratic Party (DP) colleague. Park was found dead after a former secretary filed a sexual harassment complaint with police. His funeral was held last Monday and soon afterwards the accuser's lawyer had a press conference.
Moon has been suffering a constant decline in his approval rating, apparently attributable to skyrocketing housing prices in Seoul and nearby cities. It fell 4.7 percentage points to 39.6 percent in the capital with a 9.7-million population, Realmeter said.
The support ratings for the DP and the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) have continued to narrow. The popularity of the DP fell 4.4 percentage points to 35.3 percent and that of the UFP gained 1.3 percentage points to 31 percent.
The Moon administration's real estate policy has come under growing public criticism. Addressing the National Assembly's opening ceremony on Thursday, the president pledged all available policy measures to stabilize the housing market, including the expansion of supply.
But there have been confusing signals from his office, Cheong Wa Dae, over the issue of whether to lift "greenbelt" development restrictions around Seoul to expand housing supply.
A senior Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters Sunday that the government has yet to reach a conclusion on the sensitive matter.
"Our position is to review all alternative options (including the greenbelt one). There's no conclusion yet," the official said.
A separate Realmeter survey showed a majority of South Koreans oppose using the greenbelt to create more residential areas.
In the poll of 1,000 people, aged 18 or older, across the nation, 60.4 percent of respondents said it's "unnecessary" to do so, while 26.5 percent said it's needed for the expansion of housing supply.
Among residents in Seoul, 61.8 percent were negative about developing the greenbelt areas, with 31.7 percent supporting it.
The survey was conducted last Friday and the margin of error is plus and minus 3.1 percentage points. (Yonhap)