[Anchor]

President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating has dropped to 38.9%. According to a Realmeter survey, this marks his lowest rating and the first time it has fallen into the 30% range since taking office.

Reporter Kang Min-u has the details.

[Reporter]

In a survey of 2,509 adults aged 18 and older nationwide conducted by pollster Realmeter from August 24 to 28, positive evaluations of President Lee Jae-myung's state affairs performance stood at 38.9%, while negative evaluations were 58.7%.

President Lee's approval rating fell by 1.3 percentage points from 40.2% the previous week.

Based on Realmeter's weekly surveys, his rating has declined for seven consecutive weeks, reaching a record low and entering the 30% range for the first time.

The results were also compared by age group and region with the previous week's survey.

Those in their 50s experienced a sharp drop of 7.5 percentage points, and those in their 40s saw a fall of 3.1 percentage points, while drops among those aged 20 or younger, in their 60s, and 70 or older were under 2 percentage points.

Conversely, the approval rating among those in their 30s rose by 8.8 percentage points.

By region, support dropped by 8.5 percentage points in the Chungcheong region and 4.1 percentage points in the Honam region.

In the greater Seoul metropolitan area, Seoul saw a 0.3 percentage point decline, while Incheon and Gyeonggi Province recorded a 1.5 percentage point increase.

Realmeter analyzed that the factors behind the decline in approval ratings include worsening public sentiment regarding real estate due to housing prices and jeonse/wolse (key money and monthly rent) issues, controversies surrounding the appointment of Supreme Court justice candidates, and distrust in the police following a missing person case in Jeju.

The Cheong Wa Dae (Presidential Office) stated, "We will place top priority on people's livelihoods and the economy, closely examine overall state affairs so that the public can feel tangible improvements in their lives, and do our utmost to achieve practical results."

Within Cheong Wa Dae, some officials are reportedly sensing that since this poll did not reflect the evaluations of the Cabinet reshuffle announced the day before yesterday (August 30), they expect approval ratings to recover in the next poll.

(Camera filming: Ha Ryung, Yoon Hyung | Video editing: Lee Seung-jin | Design: Choi Jae-young)