President Park Geun-hye’s approval rating dropped for the first time in six weeks this week, a poll showed Friday.
After hitting an all-time low of 29 percent in early February, Park’s approval rating climbed for five consecutive weeks to reach 39 percent last week, according to polling agency Gallup Korea.
However, in this week’s survey conducted between Tuesday and Thursday, 36 percent approved of Park’s job performance, down 3 percentage points from last week, Gallup Korea said.
Of those surveyed, 54 percent said they disapprove of Park’s performance, while 10 percent did not give an opinion.
About one-fifth, or 22 percent, of those who approved of Park’s job performance praised her for her hard work and efforts, while 21 percent said they approve of the way she has been handling diplomatic and international affairs
About 6 percent of those who gave a positive assessment of Park cited her administration’s recent vows to wipe out corruption, up 4 percentage points from last week, Gallup said.
Meanwhile, economic policy was the largest contributor to the disapproval rate at 17 percent, up 4 percentage points from last week. It is the first time economic policy has accounted for such a large share since Park took office in February 2013, Gallup said.
The survey was conducted on 1,002 adults nationwide and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. (Yonhap)
