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| President Yoon Suk-yeol / Yonhap |
President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating fell below 50 percent for the first time since he took office last month, a poll showed Monday, amid criticism of his personnel choices for key government positions.
In a Realmeter poll of 2,009 adults conducted between Tuesday and Friday, 48 percent gave a positive assessment on Yoon's handling of state affairs, down 4.1 percentage points from the previous survey, while 44.2 percent answered the opposite, up 3.9 percentage points from the earlier poll.
Yoon's approval rating started at 52.1 percent and reached 54.1 percent in the last week of May. But it has been declining since, falling to 52.1 percent in the first week of June, according to Realmeter.
The president, who spent decades as a prosecutor, recently faced criticism that he selected too many former and incumbent prosecutors for key government positions, including the chief of the watchdog Financial Supervisory Service.
On the favorability rating of political parties, Yoon's People Power Party (PPP) received 47.3 percent of support, down 2.5 percentage points from the previous poll, while the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) had 39.2 percent, up 1 percentage point from the earlier survey.
The poll has a margin of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
Meanwhile, in a KSOI poll of 1,000 adults conducted Friday and Saturday, Yoon's approval rating was 50.3 percent, down 6 percentage points from the previous poll June 1, while 42.6 percent gave a negative assessment, up 6.5 percentage points.
The KSOI poll showed the favorability rating of the PPP was 42 percent, while that of the DPK was 32.8 percent.
The KSOI poll has a margin of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. (Yonhap)
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