Supreme Court Chief Justice Jo Hee-de (Yonhap) President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating fell below the 40 percent mark for the first time in Realmeter's opinion polls since Lee's inauguration in June 2025, as friction with the Supreme Court flares up.The decline came amid growing controversy surrounding Supreme Court justice appointments, in the latest development in the power struggle between South Korea's liberal bloc and the top court led by Chief Justice Jo Hee-de.Lee's approval rating has been on a downward trend for seven consecutive weeks. The figure stood at 38.9 percent in the fourth week of August, down 1.3 percentage points from the previous week. His disapproval rating, meanwhile, rose 1.8 percentage points to 58.7 percent.Those who disapproved of Lee's performance outnumbered those who approved of it for the sixth consecutive week.The pollster cited controversy over the presidential office's unprecedented move to reject the Supreme Court's justice pick as one reason for the decline in Lee's approval rating.Tensions have been building over the Supreme Court's justice picks, which South Korea's executive branch rejected on Friday, labeling them "unilateral" decisions made without consultation between the two branches of government.The ruling party has defended the presidential office's decision to reject one of the two candidates, arguing that Cheong Wa Dae is not an institution designed to simply rubber-stamp the top court's decision.Meanwhile, the ruling party has ramped up pressure on Jo, who leads the Supreme Court that found Lee guilty in May 2025 of making false claims during a presidential campaign period. The ruling nearly stripped Lee, then the liberal presidential frontrunner, of his right to be elected.The case concerning Lee's election law violation was remanded to a high court but remains pending. Lee won the presidential election in June 2025, and the court soon suspended all five of his criminal trials.Jo has since been accused of interfering in the 2025 presidential election.Meanwhile, the National Assembly, where the ruling Democratic Party of Korea holds a majority, passed a law last year to expand the Supreme Court bench by adding 12 new justices to the existing 14-member bench. The law granted Lee the power to appoint 22 justices to the 26-member bench during his five-year term, and Friday's decision concerned the first two of those 22 appointments.The National Assembly on Monday canceled its plan to hold a parliamentary hearing over the Supreme Court picks amid news reports that Jo had recently lost his father.As the ruling party has attempted multiple times to summon Jo to parliamentary hearings, Jo has declined to appear, including at Monday's scheduled hearing.Alongside the Supreme Court picks, the pollster also cited the lingering housing affordability crisis, public safety concerns following revelations that Jeju Island police had falsely closed missing-person cases, and an ongoing internal feud within the ruling party.