SEOUL, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating slightly fell this week after the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)’s short-range projectile launches in less than two weeks, a weekly poll showed Thursday.
According to the Realmeter survey, support for Moon inched down 0.4 percentage points over the week to 49.5 percent this week.
The negative assessment on Moon’s management of state affairs was unchanged at 45.5 percent.
The slight fall in support scores came as the DPRK test-fired short-range projectiles into its eastern waters in less than two weeks.
Volatility in the South Korean financial market recently deepened amid the global trade dispute, negatively affecting Moon’s approval scores.
The negative factors were offset by Japan’s removal of South Korea last week from its whitelist of trusted trading partners, which encouraged people to be united against Japan’s export curbs.
Support for Moon’s ruling Democratic Party slipped 1.9 percentage points over the week to 39.6 percent this week, keeping a downward trend for the second consecutive week.
The main conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party won 29.6 percent of support this week, up 0.8 percentage points from the previous week.
The minor progressive Justice Party garnered 7 percent in support scores, followed by the minor conservative Bareun Future Party with 4.1 percent and the center-left Party for Democracy and Peace with 2.1 percent each.
The newly created far-right Our Republican Party gained 2.2 percent of approval rating.
The results were based on a survey of 1,503 voters conducted from Monday to Wednesday. It had plus or minus 2.5 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.
