S. Korean president's approval rating falls to 64.8 pct: poll

Alsharq Tribune-AFP 

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating fell 2.6 percentage points to 64.8 percent last week compared to the fourth week of September, a weekly poll showed Monday.

The negative assessment on Lee's conduct of state affairs increased 3.0 percentage points to 34.6 percent, according to computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) by local pollster Flower Research.

The survey in the first week of this month was omitted amid the Chuseok holiday, the South Korean version of Thanksgiving Day.

The ruling liberal Democratic Party's support advanced 1.9 percentage points to 53.3 percent, while the conservative opposition People Power Party's approval score gained 1.5 percentage points to 29.0 percent.

Support rate for the minor left-leaning Rebuilding Korea Party and the minor rightist New Reform Party logged 2.6 percent and 2.8 percent each last week.

The pollster's separate survey of the automated response system (ARS) showed that Lee's approval rating declined 4.6 percentage points to 56.4 percent last week compared to two weeks earlier.

The CATI and the ARS surveyed 1,011 and 1,009 voters each from Friday to Saturday. They had a plus and minus 3.1 percentage points in margin of error with a confidence level of 95 percent.