Seoul: A president can endure a negative poll when its causes are isolated. Yet President Lee Jae Myung now faces a broader political problem: His approval rating has fallen to 38 percent, according to a Gallup Korea poll released Friday, slipping below the 40 percent threshold for the first time since he took office in June 2025.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the causes of this decline are converging across various issues the administration has handled poorly. The poll highlights that Lee's Cabinet nominations have become key liabilities. Additionally, the government has yet to resolve a contentious decision regarding the Strait of Hormuz, and constitutional reform remains clouded by questions about presidential term limits. Real estate policy has also contributed to negative evaluations.
Personnel problems within the administration expose a deeper weakness beyond the reputations of individual nominees. Rep. Yong Hye-in, the sole lawmaker of the minor Basic Income Party, was nominated to head the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family but faced strong criticism. Her intention to retain her proportional representation seat after joining the Cabinet, along with allegations involving nepotism and party funding, drew public ire. Her argument that the law permits lawmakers to serve concurrently with Cabinet posts did little to address questions of public fairness.
On Sunday, Yong announced her withdrawal as the political cost became undeniable, with 61 percent of Gallup poll respondents judging her nomination negatively against just 13 percent positively. The episode suggests that the administration's vetting process is failing a basic task: anticipating how technically defensible arrangements will appear to ordinary voters.
Kim Seung-won, Lee's nominee for justice minister, faces a different test. The two-term lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea has apologized for causing public concern over allegations he sought action from the Food and Drug Safety Ministry in 2021 concerning approval procedures for a COVID-19 treatment. He maintained that his intervention was a public-interest petition, and his parliamentary confirmation hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
A decision to deploy naval forces to the Strait of Hormuz involves alliance considerations, the safety of Korean personnel, relations with Iran, and the country's energy security. Lee should explain the principles that will determine the decision rather than allowing uncertainty to become another source of partisan conflict. Similarly, constitutional reform requires clarity, particularly in the debate over a four-year, two-term presidency and whether the incumbent could benefit from the change.
Lee's declining approval rating warns that room for error is shrinking. Economic and housing concerns are already weighing on public sentiment, while declining support among moderates and younger voters reduces the administration's political cushion. Lee has an opportunity to reset the terms of his presidency by adopting tougher standards before nominations, providing clearer explanations for critical national-security decisions, and taking an unambiguous position on constitutional reform.
Public trust is finite, and once consumed by personnel disputes and policy missteps, it leaves little political capital for the difficult work ahead. A president's room for error is partly measured by how much trust remains when mistakes occur. Lee's weakening approval indicates that this reserve is already thinning, and the next test will be whether he treats this warning as a reason to sharpen his judgment before another misjudgment further narrows that room.