President Lee Myung-bak's approval rating has reached nearly 40 percent after dipping as low as 20 percent last year during heated nationwide protests against the resumption of U.S. beef imports, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday, quoting a survey.
According to a poll conducted this month by Research & Research, a private research firm, 39.3 percent of 800 people surveyed answered they approved of the Lee administration.
The survey was conducted under the company's own market watch program, which has kept track of presidents' monthly approval ratings since 1991, according to a researcher at the company.
Lee's popularity tumbled to 21.6 percent in June last year, only two months after it reached nearly 60 percent following his victory in the December election by the largest margin in history.
The rapid drop came amid violent protests over an agreement with Washington to lift South Korea's ban on U.S. beef, imposed in 2003 following a case of mad cow disease case in the United States.
Over 70 percent of those surveyed at the time had opposed the government.
Lee's approval rating remains virtually unchanged since the beginning of the year. A January poll showed 39.4 percent of people approved of the president.
A greater change was seen in the number of people who disapproved of Lee and his administration.
In January, 54.4 percent of those surveyed said they did not approve of the president. That number dropped to 51.7 percent this month.
"There is a slight trend of decreasing opposition, but we cannot say there is a definite sign because the drop is still within the margin of error," the company official said.