President Yoon Sees Dramatic Improvement in Approval Rating from 11% to 40% Despite Martial Law Fiasco
This is pretty incredible how quickly President Yoon’s approval rating has jumped despite being impeached for the martial law fiasco. The article is speculating that conservatives in Korea are rallying around Yoon because of how much they despite the opposition leader Lee Jae-myung:
In the first several months after his inauguration in May 2022, President Yoon Suk Yeol’s approval rating quickly fell below 40 percent in most polls and never recovered to that level again.
His controversial decision to declare martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, appeared to seal his fate as a failed leader rejected by the people including those who voted for him, with some surveys showing his popularity plunging to as low as 11 percent.
However, in an unexpected turn of events, his approval rating is now bouncing back — surpassing the levels seen before the martial law declaration.
A poll conducted between Jan. 3 and 4 by KOPRA found that 40 percent of respondents supported Yoon. In a poll conducted by the same pollster four months ago, 30 percent did.
In another survey released on Monday by Realmeter, his party also enjoyed a jump in support, with 34.4 percent saying they support the ruling People Power Party, up from 30.6 percent in a poll conducted a week earlier.
Meanwhile, the approval rating for the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) inched down to 45.2 percent from 45.8 percent in the Realmeter poll. The figure surged to 52.4 percent in the week that followed Yoon’s six-hour imposition of military rule, and has been decreasing since.
You can read more at the link.
How reliable are KOPRA and Realmeter? And what were their sample sizes?
The Realmeter one is probably reliable. Pretty sure that one had to be screened by the NEC first before it was conducted. The KOPRA one wasn’t screened and is probably questionable (I still think it’s measuring something). The Korean left is threatening lawsuits over the KOPRA poll and has remained silent so far on the Realmeter poll… I think that should be telling.
That said, there have been a number of polls that have found a rebound for the PPP, so unless the arguement is that they’re all biased, I think there’s reason to believe something real is being captured. Just look at the pro-Yoon protest crowd sizes and how frequent they’ve become. PGH did not enjoy similar public support.
Both polls sampled ~1000, which if you know the polling industry is a pretty typical sample size.
As a mostly-disinterested observer, I think the polls reflect Yoon is not wildly popular; but people remember the economic devastation and curtailment of freedoms under Moon.
They’re seemingly voting for a spoonful of PPP crap in their bowl of Wheaties instead of a spoonful of Wheaties in their bowl of DPK crap.
Koreans figuring out communism is not good.
Nothing to do with communism, and it’s your wishful thinking.
But it’s hypocritical and strange that you guys are championing someone who wanted to turn South Korea into a single party (PPP) state with no free elections, and put people in prisons for opposing the government – which no better than the Commies in NK and China.
This tells you that the “poll” was rigged (not a surprise).
https://www.reddit.com/r/korea/comments/1hvuvxx/the_secret_to_yoons_supposed_40_approval_rating/