President Lee Jae Myung (Yonhap)
President Lee Jae Myung (Yonhap)

President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating inched up to 62 percent this week marking six months in office, amid positive public sentiment over his diplomacy, a poll showed Friday.

The survey by Gallup Korea, conducted Tuesday through Thursday on 1,000 respondents aged 18 and over, showed that 62 percent gave a good assessment of Lee's overall performance, up 2 percentage points from the previous two weeks.

Twenty-nine percent gave a negative view, down from last week's 29 percent, while 8 percent withheld their evaluation.

Diplomacy topped all other areas of state affairs among the reasons cited for positive assessments, accounting for 32 percent, followed by 14 percent who pointed to his leadership in managing the economy and livelihood issues.

Negative assessments, which came to 18 percent, were mostly driven by views critical of his performance on the economy and livelihood matters. Others pointed to moral concerns related to his trials, among other factors.

Thursday marked 100 days since he took office in a snap election in June, triggered by the ouster of former President Yoon Suk Yeol over his attempted imposition of martial law on Dec. 3.

Compared with the approval ratings of former presidents at the six-month mark of their terms, Lee ranked third, behind former President Kim Young-sam's 84 percent and former President Moon Jae-in's 74 percent.

The approval rating for the ruling Democratic Party came to 43 percent, while that of the main opposition People Power Party stood at 24 percent.

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. (Yonhap)