▲ President Lee Jae Myung attends the first meeting under his administration at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Aug. 21, 2026, to discuss pan-government efforts to root out corruption, including corruption involving government contracts and former government officials. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating has slipped to a new low of 40.2 percent, also marking the sixth consecutive week of decline, a poll showed Monday.

In the poll conducted on 2,026 voters from Tuesday to Friday by Realmeter and commissioned by the EKN newspaper, Lee's approval rating fell 2.8 percentage points from the previous week.

Of the respondents, 56.9 percent gave a negative assessment of Lee's job performance, up 2.8 percentage points from the previous week.

Realmeter attributed the latest decline to growing distrust over the government's housing policies amid controversy over a recent proposal to build apartments in Yongsan Park in central Seoul, as well as partisan clashes over Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae's recommendation of two new Supreme Court justice nominees to the president in writing.

The move drew controversy as the chief justice has usually made such recommendations to the president in person after prior coordination.

The pollster also cited security concerns following the scaled-back military drills between South Korea and the United States, saying the approval rating declined among conservative voters and those aged 70 and older.

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

In a separate poll conducted by the same pollster, support for the ruling Democratic Party dropped 6 percentage points from a week earlier to 41.9 percent, while support for the main opposition People Power Party rose 4.5 percentage points to 37.6 percent.

The poll was conducted on 1,009 individuals aged 18 and older on Thursday and Friday, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

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