Lee's approval rating hits new low of 37.4%: poll

President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating has plummeted to a historic low of 37.4 percent, according to a poll released on Monday. This marks the eighth week in a row that his approval has slipped. The decline, highlighted by the poll conducted by Realmeter and commissioned by the EKN newspaper, saw Lee's approval rating drop by 1.5 percentage points compared to the previous week. Conversely, his disapproval rating increased by 0.8 points, reaching 59.5 percent.

The poll, which surveyed 2,510 adults between Monday and Friday, attributes the drop to controversy surrounding Lee's recent Cabinet reshuffle and the government's decision to scrap plans to lower the basic deduction for single-home owners who do not reside in their properties. The main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), is particularly critical of Lee's decision to appoint Rep. Kim Seung-won as the new justice minister.

The opposition argues the nomination is a politically motivated move to help the president evade criminal charges.

The survey's margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. In related news, a separate poll by the same agency showed support for the DPK fell by 1.3 percentage points from the week before.