Yoon leads Lee 43.5% to 40.4%: poll

Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol is leading his ruling party rival Lee Jae-myung with 43.5 percent support against Lee's 40.4 percent, a poll showed Monday.

The 3.1 percentage-point gap was within the margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level, according to the survey of 1,005 adults conducted Friday and Saturday by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI).

Compared with the previous week's survey, Yoon of the conservative People Power Party lost 1.1 points, while Lee of the liberal Democratic Party gained 2 points, the pollster said.

The latest survey was conducted shortly after President Moon Jae-in slammed Yoon for saying he would investigate the former administration's "deep-rooted evils" if elected.

In third place was Ahn Cheol-soo, the candidate of the minor opposition People's Party, with 7.8 percent, followed by Sim Sang-jeung of the minor progressive Justice Party at 3.5 percent.

Huh Kyung-young of the National Revolutionary Party and Kim Dong-yeon of the New Wave earned 1.2 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

When asked to characterize the March 9 election, 47.7 percent said they would vote for the opposition candidate as a rebuke of the current administration's running of state affairs, while 42.5 percent said they would vote for the ruling party candidate for the stable running of state affairs.

The gap between the two sides was reduced to 5.2 percentage points, down 8.6 points from the previous survey. (Yonhap)