Moon's rating falls for 2nd straight week amid disputes over personnel choices

All News 09:03 June 26, 2017

SEOUL, June 26 (Yonhap) -- President Moon Jae-in's approval rating dropped last week for the second consecutive week amid disputes over his personnel choices and his policy adviser's security remarks, a survey showed Monday.

In the survey conducted from last Monday through Friday by local pollster Realmeter, Moon's support was tallied at 74.2 percent, down 1.4 percentage points from a week earlier.

Those who disapproved of his job performance made up 18.6 percent, up 1.2 percentage points, while 7.1 percent said they were unsure or refused to answer.

Last week, opposition parties criticized Moon's special adviser Moon Chung-in's remarks over the idea of downsizing South Korea-U.S. military exercises in return for North Korea's nuclear freeze. The Yonsei University professor later said the idea was from his "scholarly belief."

Opposition parties also continued to denounce Moon's controversial personnel choices, including Defense Minister nominee Song Young-moo. Song has been dogged by a range of allegations, including seemingly exorbitant payments for his advisory role at a law firm and a defense company, and false address registration.

Moon's support rating declined the most in the southeastern region of Busan, South Gyeongsang Province and Ulsan (6.2 percentage points), followed by the central region of Daejeon, the Chungcheong Provinces and Sejong (4.5 percentage points).

By age, support fell the most among those in their 40s (2.1 percentage points), followed by those in their 50s (1.6 percentage points).

In the survey, the rating for the ruling Democratic Party remained unchanged at 53.6 percent, while support for the main opposition Liberty Korea Party declined 0.2 percentage point to 14.5 percent.

The ratings for the People's Party and Justice Party were tallied at 6.3 percent each, while the figure for the Bareun Party stood at 6.2 percent.

The survey, commissioned by the local broadcaster CBS, was conducted on 2,531 adults across the country and had a margin of error of 1.9 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level.