S.Korean president's approval rating hits new low

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South Korean President Moon Jae-in's approval rating hit its lowest point since he took office last year, keeping a downward trend for the eighth consecutive week, a weekly poll showed Thursday.

According to the Realmeter survey, support for Moon fell 1.2 percentage points over the week to 52.5 percent this week, the lowest since the president was inaugurated in May last year.

Moon's approval score has fallen for eight straight weeks, after peaking at 65.3 percent following his third summit in September with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The continued decline was mainly attributable to weakening economic indicators. Moon has advocated a policy of inclusive growth to narrow income disparity, looking to increase the incomes of the low-wage bracket.

According to Statistics Korea, the income gap widened further in the third quarter as earnings of the bottom 20 percent fell for three straight quarters, while incomes of the top 20 percent kept growing for 11 quarters in a row.

The result of the opinion poll was based on a survey of 1,505 voters from Monday to Wednesday. It had 2.5 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.

Support for the ruling Democratic Party dipped 0.7 percentage points over the week to 39.8 percent this week.

The main conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party garnered 22.6 percent of support this week, up 0.9 percentage points from the previous week.

It was followed by the minor progressive Justice Party with 8.7 percent. The minor conservative Bareun Future Party and the center-left Party for Democracy and Peace won 4.9 percent and 2.1 percent each.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency