Moon’s ratings lowest since March

President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating fell to its lowest level since March as continued provocations by North Korea escalated tensions, including the demolition of the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong on Tuesday.

In a poll of 1,507 eligible voters conducted from Monday through Wednesday, 53.6 percent assessed Moon’s job performance positively, down 4.6 percentage points from last week, Realmeter said Thursday.

It is the sharpest weekly decline seen this year and Moon’s lowest approval rating in 12 weeks, according to the pollster. In the fourth week of March, Moon’s approval rating stood at 52.6 percent.

Negative assessments of Moon rose 4.1 percentage points to 41.4 percent.

The approval rating for the ruling Democratic Party stood at 41.4 percent, down 0.9 percentage point from a week ago. It was, however, ahead of the United Future Party (27.5 percent), the Open Minjoo Party (4.9 percent,) the Justice Party (4.7 percent) and the People’s Party (3.9 percent).

The poll, commissioned by broadcaster TBS, has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level.

In a separate survey of 500 people aged 18 or above on Wednesday, 51.6 percent said they disagreed with the claim that parliamentary ratification of the Panmunjom Declaration would improve inter-Korean relations, according to Realmeter.

Some 39.2 percent said they agreed, and 9.2 percent said they did not know. That poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)