Lee Jae-myung Approval Rating Falls to Record Low 43.3% in Realmeter Poll

On Monday, August 10, 2026, polling firm Realmeter reported that President Lee Jae-myung’s job approval rating fell to 43.3% — a fourth consecutive weekly decline and his lowest score since taking office. Disapproval rose to 53.0%, leaving a gap of 9.7 percentage points between supporters and critics, outside the poll’s margin of error for a second straight week.

The survey, conducted August 3–7 among 2,514 adults nationwide aged 18 and older, deepened a slide that began in mid-July, when Lee’s approval stood at 48.9%. For the first time since his inauguration, the president’s personal rating fell below support for his Democratic Party of Korea, which registered 44.6% in a separate party-preference poll.

Editor’s note: This article draws on Realmeter data released August 10, 2026, and reporting from The Korea Herald, Kyunghyang Shinmun, Maeil Business, and Asia Business Daily. Polling was commissioned by Energy Economy News.

Poll at a glance

Metric	Result	Weekly change
Job approval	43.3%	−2.6 pp
Job disapproval	53.0%	+2.5 pp
Undecided	3.6%	—
Democratic Party support	44.6%	−0.5 pp
People Power Party support	37.6%	−0.1 pp

Realmeter conducted the presidential approval survey via wireless automated telephone responses, with a margin of error of ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level and a response rate of 4.0%. The party-support question, asked of 1,007 respondents on August 6–7, carried a margin of error of ±3.1 points.

Minor parties polled in single digits: the Rebuilding Korea Party and Reform New Party each drew 2.9%, the Progressive Party 1.5%, and 9.0% of respondents were undecided.

Where support fell hardest

The national drop masked sharper losses in Lee’s political base and in opposition strongholds alike.

Region	Weekly change in approval
Seoul	−5.9 pp
Daegu & North Gyeongsang	−5.5 pp
Busan, Ulsan & South Gyeongsang	−4.8 pp

By age, approval fell 5.6 percentage points among voters 70 and older, 5.3 points among those in their 60s, and 2.5 points among voters in their 20s.

Realmeter said defections expanded especially among Seoul residents, conservative voters, and older age groups — a pattern that helps explain why both the president and the ruling party lost ground even as the main opposition People Power Party barely moved.

What drove the decline

Realmeter attributed the continued slide to a cluster of policy fights and public anxieties overlapping in the same survey window:

Real estate tax overhaul

Lee’s government has pushed changes to the real estate tax system, a politically sensitive issue in a country where housing costs dominate household budgets. Critics — including the People Power Party — have framed the plan as a burden on homeowners and a threat to property values. Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that controversy over the overhaul contributed to Democratic Party supporters drifting away in Seoul and among voters in their 20s.

Prosecution reform

Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act that would strip prosecutors of their direct investigative powers have drawn fierce opposition. Conservatives argue the changes weaken law enforcement; the government says they curb prosecutorial overreach. The dispute has become a central line of attack for the opposition.

Military Academy remarks

Lee also faced backlash over remarks about a possible coup at the Korea Military Academy, which opponents seized on as evidence of divisive rhetoric toward the armed forces.

Heat and the economy

Realmeter cited the ongoing heat wave and broader economic uncertainty as additional background pressures, even though those factors are harder to tie to a single policy vote.

Party politics in parallel

The president’s troubles did not translate into a surge for the opposition. People Power Party support slipped only 0.1 point to 37.6%, as Realmeter noted that gains from attacking the government’s tax and prosecution agenda were partly offset by internal disciplinary disputes and leadership gaffes.

Kyunghyang Shinmun highlighted that Lee’s 43.3% approval now trails his party’s 44.6% — a symbolic reversal suggesting some voters distinguish between the Democratic Party brand and the president’s personal performance.

Factional competition ahead of the party’s national convention also weighed on Democratic support, according to Realmeter, as leadership contenders clashed amid the policy controversies.

What it means for Lee’s presidency

A sub-50% approval rating is not unusual for South Korean presidents, who often face early honeymoon fades once major reforms begin. But the four-week downward streak and the first sub-44% reading in Realmeter’s series mark a meaningful inflection.

With disapproval above 50% for two consecutive weeks outside the polling margin of error, Lee enters the second half of his reform agenda with a narrower cushion of public goodwill. Seoul’s 5.9-point weekly drop is especially notable: the capital backed Lee heavily in his election, and losing ground there signals vulnerability among urban moderates who backed change but are wary of tax and institutional upheaval.

The opposition retains its own credibility problems — party support below 38% leaves a large pool of undecided voters — but Lee can no longer count on a decisive popularity advantage to shield contentious legislation.

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Discussion

South Korea’s latest numbers sit at the intersection of structural reform and everyday anxiety over housing, heat, and jobs.

1. Lee campaigned on curbing prosecutorial power and addressing inequality — reforms that were always going to face resistance. At 43.3% approval, is the public rejecting the policies themselves, or the way the government has communicated and sequenced them?

2. Seoul’s approval fell nearly six points in a single week while opposition party support barely budged. Does that suggest voters are punishing the president personally rather than rallying to the People Power Party — and what would that mean for the next election cycle?

If you follow Korean politics, where do you think Lee’s rating goes from here — and which issue will matter most?

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