S. Korean president's approval rating falls to 65.2 pct: poll

SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating fell 1.7 percentage points from a week earlier to 65.2 percent last week, a weekly poll showed Monday.

The negative assessment on Lee's conduct of state affairs increased 1.1 percentage points to 33.4 percent, according to computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) by local pollster Flower Research.

The ruling liberal Democratic Party's support retreated 1.4 percentage points to 52.5 percent, while the conservative opposition People Power Party's approval score gained 3.2 percentage points to 30.2 percent.

Support rate for the minor left-leaning Rebuilding Korea Party and the minor rightist New Reform Party logged 2.1 percent and 2.4 percent each last week.

The pollster's separate survey of automated response system (ARS) showed that Lee's approval rating declined 1.3 percentage points to 58.8 percent last week compared to the previous week.

The CATI and the ARS surveyed 1,002 and 1,004 voters each from Friday to Saturday. They had plus and minus 3.1 percentage points in margin of error with a confidence level of 95 percent. ■