S. Korean President's first approval rating posts 81.6%

South Korean President Moon Jae-in's first approval rating since his inauguration earlier this month topped 80 per cent, a local poll showed on Monday.

According to a Realmeter survey, Moon gained 81.6 per cent in support scores. Negative assessment on him was 10.1 per cent, while 8.3 per cent refrained from replying, Xinhua news agency reported.

It was based on a poll of 2,526 voters conducted from Monday to Friday last week. It had 1.9 percentage points in a margin of error, with a 95 per cent confidence level.

Moon's approval scores were much higher than his predecessor Park Geun-hye's 54.8 per cent. Park's predecessor Lee Myung-bak logged 76 per cent in the first survey results.

Support for Moon surpassed 90 per cent in the country's southwest region, a traditional home turf for the ruling Democratic Party.

The support rate exceeded in all regions across the country, including the southeast region, a political home turf for conservative politicians.

Moon's Democratic Party posted 53.3 per cent in support scores last week, up 8.6 percentage points from a week earlier. The rate kept rising for the third consecutive week.

Four major opposition parties saw a fall in approval ratings. Support for the main opposition Liberty Korea Party fell 0.6 percentage points to 12.4 per cent.

It was followed by the centrist People's Party, whose support rating shed 1.1 percentage points to 7.7 per cent.

Support for the minor conservative Righteous Party dipped 1.5 percentage points to 6.8 per cent.

The minor progressive Justice Party saw its support tumble 3 percentage points to 6.6 per cent as support for the party moved to the ruling Democratic Party.

--IANS

py/dg