SEOUL, March 5 (UPI) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating has risen for the second straight week, after the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games were held in the country.
A Realmeter poll found 66.5 percent of the South Korean public believed Moon was managing state affairs well, up 0.8 percentage point from the third week of February.
Those who disapproved of Moon’s handling of state affairs increased by 0.4 percentage point to 29.3 percent.
The stronger approval rating also represents a 5.7 percentage point rise from a month earlier, when the leader’s rating dropped to a low of 60.8 percent.
The pollster said public support for Moon shot up to 68 percent last Monday, as both domestic and international observers highly evaluated the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics Games.
However, his rating dipped to 62.7 percent on Wednesday after state prosecutors requested a 30-year prison term for impeached ex-President Park Geun-hye.
Following Moon’s speech on March 1, marking the 99th anniversary of Koreans’ declaration of independence from Japan’s colonial rule, and his conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on sending South Korean envoys to North Korea, public approval inched up to 64.9 percent.
By region, the swing areas of Sejong, Daejeon and Chungcheong and the liberal stronghold of Gwangju and Jeolla mostly backed Moon’s state policies.
Meanwhile, public approval fell by 3.2 percentage point in Seoul to 65.9 percent and 40.7 percent in the conservative Daegu City and North Gyeongsang Province.
The survey on 2,300 adults was conducted between Feb. 26 to 28 and on March 2, with a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.
