27 June 2017

News Story: S. Korean president's approval rating stays high despite controversy over security issues

South Korean President Moon Jae-in (File Photo)
SEOUL, June 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in kept his approval rating at a relatively high level despite controversy over security issues, a survey showed Monday.
According to local pollster Realmeter, Moon's support rate was 74.2 percent last week, down 1.4 percentage points from a week earlier.

The support scores fell for the second consecutive week, but Moon's rating was higher than his predecessors tallied in an early presidency. Moon came into office on May 10.

The result was based on a poll of 2,531 voters conducted from last Monday to Friday. It has 1.9 percentage points in margin of error with a 95-percent confidence level.

The fall in support for Moon came amid controversy over comments, which made in Washington by Moon Chung-in, the president's special advisor on security, unification and foreign affairs.

The presidential special advisor said on June 16 that if the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) stops any nuclear and missile provocations, the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises and the deployment of the U.S military strategic assets in South Korea could be scaled down through discussions with the U.S. side.

The main opposition Liberty Korea Party denounced the advisor's comments, worrying about the weakening of the U.S.-South Korea alliance.

Read the full story at Xinhua