President's Party Still Trailing In Polls As US Visit Approaches

President Moon Jae-in's liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) continues to trail in opinion polls amid poor approval ratings ahead of a visit to the US with an audience alongside President Joe Biden scheduled for Friday.

• Realmeter poll: Party Support: People Power Party (Conservative): 35.4% (+0.1), DPK (Liberal): 29.9% (-0.3), People's Party (Centrist): 6.6% (-0.7), ODP (Liberal): 5.8% (+0.2), JP (Centre-left): 4.8% (+0.3). No support: 17.5%. +/- vs. 26-30/04/21. Fieldwork: 10-14/05/21. Sample size: 2,514
• Realmeter poll: Approval rating for President Moon Jae-in (DPK, Liberal): Satisfied: 36%, Dissatisfied: 60.5% (+0.2). Don't Know: 3.5% (-0.2). +/- vs. 26-30/04/21. Fieldwork: 10-14/05/21. Sample size: 2,514
• President Moon is limited to a single five-year term in office, meaning he cannot run again in the March 2022 election. So far, two individuals have declared their candidacies for the DPK presidential nomination: Park Yong-jin, a member of the National Assembly since 2016 and Yang Seung-jo, governor of South Chungcheong Province. Former PM Lee Nak-yeon remains the frontrunner for the party, despite not having yet confirmed his candidacy.
• Moon's focus is likely to be on the coming days rather than his approval ratings, with his first in-person meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House scheduled for Friday 21 May. The main topic of discussion is set to be countering North Korea's nuclear programme, and area where there has been precious little progress since the meeting between former US President Donald Trump and North Korea' Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un in Feb 2019.