Yoon, Lee neck-and-neck at 42% vs. 40.6% in presidential poll

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP)'s presidential candidate, Yoon Suk-yeol, was leading his ruling Democratic Party (DP) rival Lee Jae-myung by a thin margin at 42 percent to 40.6 percent, a survey showed Monday.

The 1.4 percentage point margin in the poll by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) is smaller than the 3.3 percentage point gap in favor of Yoon last week, and within the range of the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The poll, commissioned by radio broadcaster TBS, was conducted on 1,004 voters nationwide from Friday-Saturday, and has a 95 percent confidence level.

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the minor opposition People's Party, had 2.8 percent support, followed by Sim Sang-jeung of the minor progressive Justice Party at 2.6 percent.

In a separate survey by Realmeter, Yoon was leading Lee 45.2 percent to 39.7 percent.

The 5.5 percentage point margin is also less than the 6.5 percentage point lead Yoon had a week earlier.

Sim came in third with 3.3 percent, followed by Ahn at 3.2 percent.

The survey canvassed 3,043 voters from Dec. 5-10, commissioned by internet news outlet OhmyNews. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level.

The poll also put the support rate for PPP at 39.3 percent and DP at 34.2 percent, down 0.1 percentage point and up 1.1 percentage point from the previous survey, respectively.

Respondents who negatively assess the performance of President Moon Jae-in outnumbered those who view it positively 56.1 percent to 40.4 percent. (Yonhap)