President Lee Jae Myung and First Lady Kim Hea Kyung visit their hometown of Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, on Monday, celebrating the Chuseok holiday. (Lee Jae Myung’s post on Facebook)
President Lee Jae Myung and First Lady Kim Hea Kyung visit their hometown of Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, on Monday, celebrating the Chuseok holiday. (Lee Jae Myung’s post on Facebook)

President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating has rebounded to 53.5 percent, a 1.5 percentage point increase from the previous week, ending a three-week slide, according to a Realmeter poll released Monday.

The survey, conducted by Realmeter at the request of Energy Economy News from Sep. 29 to Thursday, among 2,017 adults nationwide, found that 43.3 percent of respondents viewed Lee’s performance negatively, down 0.8 percentage points from the previous week.

Realmeter attributed the rebound to a series of recent developments, including Lee’s summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the signing of a memorandum of understanding with OpenAI, along with positive economic indicators such as the Kospi surpassing 3,500 and rising export figures. The pollster also pointed to Lee’s emphasis on price stabilization and senior employment policies as additional factors boosting public approval.

The agency further noted that Lee’s swift apology and order for a full investigation following the fire-induced shutdown of the national IT network appeared to have eased public concern over the crisis.

Meanwhile, President Lee and First Lady Kim Hea Kyung drew strong viewer interest with their appearance on JTBC’s Chuseok holiday special of the cooking show “Chef & My Fridge,” which aired on Monday. According to Nielsen Korea, the broadcast achieved a nationwide viewership rating of 8.9 percent, the highest in the program’s history since its debut in 2014.

The previous record of 7.4 percent was set in August 2015 by an episode featuring K-pop idol Big Bang members G-Dragon and Taeyang.


hyejin2@heraldcorp.com