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| President Moon Jae-in listens to participants at a meeting with a big data platform company in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, Thursday. / Yonhap |
By Kim Rahn
President Moon Jae-in's approval rating has fallen below 60 percent for the first time in six weeks, apparently affected by chilled inter-Korean relations, a poll showed Friday.
According to the survey conducted by Gallup Korea from Tuesday to Thursday, 55 percent of 1,001 adults expressed the belief that Moon was doing a good job, down 5 percentage points from a week earlier.
His support rate has been falling since the first week of May when it hit 71 percent.
Another 35 percent said they were dissatisfied with Moon's handling of state affairs, while 10 percent said they did not know.
Twenty-nine percent of those who expressed a negative view of Moon's performance stated that the main reason for their opinion was the soured relations with North Korea, which blew up the inter-Korean joint liaison office on Tuesday.
This reason replaced "a lack of solution to economic hardship," which had been the main negative cause for the previous 10 weeks. This ranked second with 16 percent this week, followed by poor policy on security and Pyongyang's nuclear issues at 8 percent, which emerged as a new factor for disapproval.
"Survey participants began to talk a lot about inter-Korean relations or security issues after last week," Gallup Korea said in a press release.
The firm believed public opinion had been affected by a series of bellicose comments from ranking North Korean officials, including its leader Kim Jong-un's powerful sister Kim Yo-jong, as well as hostile acts such as cutting communication channels with the South and demolition of the liaison office.
Of those who supported Moon, 42 percent cited his good response to the coronavirus pandemic as their reason, which remained the main factor for the 19th consecutive week.
