The Koreas | Politics | East Asia

Why Is Lee Jae-myung’s Approval Rating Dropping?

Four developments, from the fading Yoon effect to failed nominations, help explain a slide to 37 percent that the South Korean president attributes to his own shortcomings.

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung blamed his own shortcomings for a steep loss of public support. His approval rating fell to 37 percent in a Gallup Korea poll released that morning, the lowest level since he took office in June 2025.

At a standing news conference at the presidential Blue House on September 18, Lee described the decline as puzzling at first. 

“In the end, I came to think that all of it, taken together, was because of my own shortcomings,” Lee said. And in opening remarks, he noted that he had been flustered by the disappointment that followed the June 3 local elections.

However, the slide began earlier. Support for Lee – who took office in June 2025 – had hovered near 60 percent for months before it started falling in mid-May. 

Among respondents who disapprove of him, 20 percent cited housing policy and 16 percent cited personnel appointments in the latest survey.

Aside from specific events, four border trends help explain the slide of the president’s approval ratings.

The first is the fading of the Yoon Suk-yeol effect. Lee won the presidency in a special election following the impeachment of Yoon, who had illegitimately declared martial law in December 2024. For months the contrast with his predecessor helped sustain Lee’s ratings. That contrast has weakened over time. Yoon was sentenced to life in prison in February for leading an insurrection. His wife, Kim Keon-hee, had her sentence increased to four years on appeal in April. Although their sentences will likely need to be confirmed in the Supreme Court, which will take years, the question for voters appears to have shifted from who should be punished to who is fixing daily life. It has already been more than 21 months after the martial law declaration and many South Koreans have moved on.

The second trend is a gap between the image of a hands-on executive Lee cultivated as a mayor and governor and the delegator he now describes. On Friday, he said he has neither the time nor the ability to micromanage everything. Lee has told staff to refrain from involvement in routine ministry business. His principle is to give authority and hold people firmly accountable.

However, the rollout of single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) shows the risk of this approach. These stock products have hurt retail investors, and South Koreans want an explanation. Former Presidential Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom said in January that he had instructed regulators to review the products. The ETFs went on sale on May 27, days before the local elections. Regulators tightened the rules on July 16 and again on July 29 as losses mounted. The policy chief resigned on September 1, and the Blue House did not give a reason. 

In his press conference on September 18, Lee said he did not yet know the details of how the products were approved, although he “received a report at the time,” he recalled. Lee conceded that it seems true that there were shortcomings. In such comments, voters who backed him for getting things done may see a president who owns the results but not the process. 

Housing is another area where Lee has failed to convince voters he is solving the problem. It is the most cited reason for disapproval in the Gallup Korea polling. Lee, for his part, pointed out that prices in outlying areas are still climbing even as those in wealthy Gangnam, the emblematic district for wealth in Seoul, soften.

The third problem is communication. Scrutiny of a president tends to sharpen in the second year, and the local elections gave critics an opening. The ruling Democratic Party won 12 of 16 mayoral and gubernatorial races but lost Seoul, where Lee had publicly backed the DP’s candidate, Chong........

© The Diplomat