President Lee’s Approval Rating Drops for the 6th Straight Week to 40%
The inevitable slide in popularity has finally hit President Lee. It seems like every Korean President enjoys initial high popularity and then eventually hits a sharp fall when they can’t deliver on all the promises they made during the campaign:
President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating fell 2.8 percentage points to 40.2 percent, the lowest since he took office, marking the sixth consecutive week of decline, a Realmeter poll showed Monday.
The poll, conducted Aug. 18-21 among 2,026 adults, found 56.9 percent disapproved of Lee’s performance, up 2.8 percentage points from the previous week.
Realmeter attributed the decline to growing distrust over the government’s housing policies, political clashes over judicial and constitutional issues, and security concerns following the scaling back of South Korea-US joint military exercises. The pollster said support among conservatives and those aged 70 and older had weakened.
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea also saw its support fall 6 percentage points to 41.9 percent, while the opposition People Power Party rose 4.5 points to 37.6 percent, according to a separate survey of 1,009 adults conducted Aug. 20-21.
You can read more at the link, but I had Grok create a chart that shows the Presidential approval rating at the beginning of their term and what they finished with. As that chart shows each President say deep declines in their approval rating. Moon Jae-in does stand out as being the most popular President and also the only one not bogged down with scandals:
First off, GI, we know the media are not “fair and balanced. Second, we know that while a person may be a genius, people are sheep.
There are still leftists who repeat the wildest, most debunked, absolutely inconsistent porcine squat imaginable. And they’re the ones who run he polls.
President Moon was the first president who openly and shamelessly put globalist interests ahead of Korean interests.
His covid response wrecked needless economic destruction on self-employed small business that can still be seen today with a record number of for rent signs. At the same time he was killing small Korean business, he gave the multinationals a stronger foothold which can be seen in their expanded presence.
Shutting down the Korean nuclear industry to keep Korea dependent on foreign energy and crippling a major export industry was another globalist agenda he pushed.
There is more.
Are Koreans blind and stupid?
Probably about 80%… like everywhere else.
Or maybe the polls are a bit fake.
You keep saying that but you haven’t explained it properly nor have you given proof.
I thought you MAGA loved multinationals because they are the biggest supporters of Trump.
Korea Thing, here is your answer. Can’t post many links but you can look it up. You know how to use the internet, same as me.
But you questioning this is an interesting clue you have no idea what is going on in Korea or you are just a dìck.
Though both can be true.
2020 small-business profits collapsed. Average operating profit per small business fell 43.1% in 2020. Accommodation/food-service operating profit fell 56.8%, education services 66.4%, and arts/sports/leisure 85.2%. Small-business employment fell by 871,000 people, or 13.5%, even though the number of registered businesses actually increased.
Closures are still extraordinarily high. Korea recorded 1,008,282 business closures in 2024, the highest number since records began in 1995. That was a 9.04% closure rate. Retail alone had a 16.78% closure rate and restaurants 15.82%.
2025 improved only slightly: 975,681 businesses closed, still almost one million. In the six sectors dominated by small businesses, 751,000 closed, with an 11.08% closure rate. Retail was 15.40% and restaurants 15.14%. More than 50% of all closures were attributed to poor business conditions/slumping business, rising to 55.7% in the six major small-business sectors.
New-business formation is weakening too. In 2025 there were 1.168 million new businesses, down 4.1% and the lowest since 2014. There were 83.5 closures for every 100 new businesses, the worst ratio in 12 years.
The empty-store phenomenon is measurable nationally. In Q2 2026, the nationwide vacancy rate for general retail property reached 13.4%, the highest since the series began in 2015. Roughly speaking, that is one out of every 7–8 rentable retail spaces vacant.
Prices are substantially higher than before COVID. Korea’s CPI was 99.47 in 2019 and 116.61 in 2025. That is about a 17.2% cumulative increase from the 2019 average. Annual inflation was 0.5% in 2020, 2.5% in 2021, 5.1% in 2022, 3.6% in 2023, 2.3% in 2024 and 2.1% in 2025.
Some everyday categories rose much more. From 2020 through 2025, food/non-alcoholic beverages repeatedly rose faster than overall CPI, while restaurants/accommodation rose 7.6% in 2022, 6.0% in 2023, 3.1% in 2024 and another 3.1% in 2025.
The macro economy technically recovered from the COVID recession, but that can hide what happened on the street. Korea’s GDP was above its pre-COVID level fairly quickly, yet domestic retail demand has been much weaker recently. For example, retail sales fell 2.1% in 2024, after already falling in 2023, while construction activity weakened sharply.
That’s the way it is.
The best way to observe this is the number of 임대 signs.
There are more now than in 1997.
Actually you are a dick, because you are using facts and figures to create a anti-Moon narrative, and you don’t know the deep structural factors that makes it difficult for small businesses survive in Korea.
I’m not a fan of Moon either, but you should do your homework first before making wild narratives.
Because anyone who knows Korea well is aware that the ongoing crisis in South Korea’s small-business sector stems from a structural mismatch between macro-level economic growth and weak street-level consumption, driven heavily by an over-saturated self-employed market, crushing pandemic-era debt burdens, and high borrowing costs.
This vulnerability is amplified by soaring cumulative inflation that has spiked fixed costs like rent, utilities, and labor, while struggling households—strained by high mortgages and stagnant real incomes—cut back on spending, leaving neighborhood merchants trapped between surging overhead and plummeting revenues.
Trump also contributed to the difficulties of small business owners since his unnecessary war with Iran caused spikes in global oil prices that have added fresh inflationary pressure (pushing inflation back toward or above 3% temporarily) and weakened the South Korean Won.
Korea Thing…
“Actually you are a dick”
Where did you get that preposterous idea? From your fat mom?
“because you are using facts and figures to create a anti-Moon narrative”
Yes, legitimate facts and figures is a truly dìck move to destroy fantasy emotional narratives that lefties base their identity on.
“Because anyone who knows Korea well is aware that the ongoing crisis in South Korea’s small-business sector stems from BLAH BLAH BLAH.”
The ongoing crisis started in March 2020 when Moon followed globalist demands to kill small Korean business to benefit large business and multinationals.
All the little resturaunts had to close early but you could drop by the Emart food court until late. Kim’s Coffee and Kim Burger went out of business while Starbucks and McDonald’s had an advertising blitz and delivery service while lobbying for continued lockdowns.
This economic destruction was indefinite, even after any threat from covid had long passed and 80% of the Korean population was 100% Safe&Effective with One&Done.
Yoon’s first act was to stop all this… and nothing changed except a temporary bump in business that was not sustainable on a foundation of Moon’s globalist destruction.
It has only gotten worse, as Yoon was sabotaged and Lee doesn’t understand, or want to understand, small business well enough to save it.
Would you like to to again post him talking about his desire to make it more difficult to start a small business?
“Trump also contributed to the difficulties of small business owners since his unnecessary war with Iran…”
BUT TRUMP! Think how dumb you sound saying that.
His overdue war with Iran started YEARS after Moon’s economic destruction of small business Korea.
Bonus: Oil is a reasonable price, tankers are moving through the gulf under America’s control, the blockade is hurting Iran at very little cost, etc. Despite media nonsense, the war is doing what it should at a great short term value and like a fantastic long term value.
Any bad effects on Korea cannot really be blamed on the war.
You can’t win this one. Best to disengage and come back from another angle.
I’ll keep on with this angle.
I’ll also keep on with the angle that you are indeed being funded by China and Russia which makes you pro-China and pro-Russia.
Example of which can be seen here, as you attempt to weaken Korea by spreading fake news and misinformation in order to sow discontent.
Everyone knows that the economical structure of the Korean economy is not friendly to small businesses.
Despite Moon’s faults, blaming him for the hardships faced by Korean small businesses by accusing him of “collaborating with globalists” is like saying Trump is a smart liberal—he isn’t.
“Everyone knows that the economical structure of the Korean economy is not friendly to small businesses.”
Apparently everyone but me.
Korea as a government has been very friendly to small business. It still is. (Only China is more friendly… though that is not a popular statement).
What isn’t friendly is that Moon’s needless globalist covid lockdowns changed the economy and society so much that it is unclear if it can restart on the same model. Seemingly not.
Lockdowns?
Where are you getting your story from?
But then you MAGAs love to create fake news, conspiracy theories, and misinformation.
Moon never lockdowned the country.
Businesses were allowed to operate normally with social distancing measures in place.
People could move freely throughout the country as long as they adhered to social distancing.
Yes social distancing was irritating to say the least but a whole lot better than countries that didn’t let people leave their homes.
“Businesses were allowed to operate normally with social distancing measures in place.”
December 2020
South Korea on Tuesday tightened nationwide restrictions on gatherings and travel to suppress the country’s third wave of coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic. Beginning Christmas Eve, South Koreans cannot eat out in groups larger than four. Skiing and skating venues will be closed.
Popular tourist destinations such as the Jeongdongjin beach on the eastern coast and Namsan park in central Seoul, typically swarmed on New Year’s Day with people hoping to catch the first sunrise of the year, will be shut down.
June 2021
SEOUL, June 20 (Reuters) – South Korea will relax social distancing rules and allow private gatherings of up to six people in the greater Seoul area from the current four starting July 1, the government said on Sunday.
The announcement comes as South Korea has inoculated 29.2% of its population as of Saturday, putting it on track to meet a target of 70% by September.
Under the revised rules, restaurants, night-life venues and cafes will be allowed to open for business until 12 a.m., versus 10 p.m. currently.
December 2021
(ATTN: UPDATES with schools’ resumption of remote learning in last 3 paras)
By Lee Haye-ah
SEOUL, Dec. 16 (Yonhap) — South Korea will reduce the maximum private gathering size to four people nationwide and restore a 9 p.m. curfew on restaurant and cafe business hours, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said Thursday, as the government rolled back its “living with COVID-19” scheme amid surging infections.
March 2022
SEOUL, March 4 (Yonhap) — The government will push back the anti-COVID-19 business curfew on cafes, restaurants and other multiuse facilities by an hour to 11 p.m. starting Saturday, Interior Minister Jeon Hae-cheol said.
December 2022
South Korea will ban five or more people from gathering at restaurants during the upcoming holiday season to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, officials said Tuesday.
Restaurants will be fined up to 3 million won ($2,709) in case of a violation, while customers will be fined up to 100,000 won, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.
Note: Covid is the same virus before and after 9pm. This curfew was designed to destroy the nighttime entertainment industry.
The restrictions on group size was designed to destroy the after work social culture.
Should we talk about how remote “learning” made a generation of social retards?
Listen up, all you fùcktards! If you forget what happened and don’t actively say Never Again, your silence will be taken for acceptance and it will be done again in some way that is just slightly different enough all you fùcktards will say, “but but but this is different.”
The penalty for not taking an interest in these things is to be ruled by the absolute worst people in society.
So now ChickenHead has shifted gears from claiming that something is “destroying small businesses” to claiming that it is “destroying after-work social culture,” apparently after realizing that his original claims simply weren’t true.
As for “after-work social culture,” every Korean knows that the old model—employees drinking heavily after work, going to room salons, and charging the entire bill to the company credit card—largely became obsolete as the generations born in the 1950s and 1960s retired from the workplace.
The younger generation simply has different priorities. They would rather spend their evenings doing things they actually enjoy than drinking until they pass out with their senior colleagues.
Companies, too, have recognized the significant cost savings associated with not paying for these drinking parties and have increasingly encouraged employees to go home and enjoy their personal time instead.
Nobody “destroyed” Korea’s after-work social culture. The culture itself became obsolete and evolved into something different.
“So now ChickenHead has shifted gears from claiming that something is “destroying small businesses” to claiming that it is “destroying after-work social culture,” apparently after realizing that his original claims simply weren’t true.”
No gear shift necessary. After-work social culture overwhelmingly supported small business where anyone who could sell beer and marginally decent food, and had 150K for the business license, could make a living after forced retirement.
In America, alcohol has become obsolete, as for several years, marijuana use is larger than cigarettes or alcohol. Even Jim Beam stopped producing new whisky.
Korea doesn’t have that problem.
But the lockdowns and restrictions pushed many people into a new easier life of staying home and “relaxing” by doomscrolling to the same short-term reward algorithms that drive the gambling industry.
But it doesn’t matter what nonsense you want to spout.
Look at small business, especially nighttime entertainment, in 2019 and 2026 and that’s all you need to know.
We should all be able to look back and assign blame where it’s due regardless of what party the culprit belongs to.
I have no problem saying orange man was wrong to go along with the shutdowns, inject stimulus into the economy leading to long term inflationary effects, and touting vaccines as a personal accomplishment. I think he got a lot of bad advice from “the experts” but in the end he could have shown better judgment.
It was early on and there were a lot of unknowns. These policies continuing when the data clearly showed the virus wasn’t a mortal threat to average adults and children with normal immune systems is probably the worst offense.
To pretend lockdowns or curfew restrictions didn’t happen or that they didn’t have disastrous effects on small businesses and the mental health of adults but more importantly school age kids is disingenuous.
I can forgive average people who were misguided and willing to acknowledge they went along with a terrible agenda. Most of those people started to realize they had been fooled around the time of a second booster and quietly opted out.
I cannot forget what happened. Like Chickenhead said, I will do what I can to remind people close to me of the timeline if I see anything that rhymes or repeats.
Moon Jae In is an absolute farce.. that guy was was worse than Lee tbh…