S. Korean president's approval rating falls to 64.2 pct: poll

SEOUL, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating fell 3.8 percentage points from a week earlier to 64.2 percent last week, a weekly poll showed Monday.

The negative assessment on Lee's conduct of state affairs rose 3.4 percentage points to 34.3 percent, according to computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) by local pollster Flower Research.

The ruling liberal Democratic Party's support decreased 4.3 percentage points to 49.7 percent, while the conservative opposition People Power Party's approval score gained 4.1 percentage points to 28.6 percent.

Support rate for the minor left-leaning Rebuilding Korea Party and the minor rightist New Reform Party logged 4.6 percent and 3.2 percent each last week.

The pollster's separate survey of automated response system (ARS) showed that Lee's approval rating retreated 2.2 percentage points to 56.4 percent last week compared to the previous week.

The CATI and the ARS surveyed 1,005 and 1,007 voters each from Friday to Saturday. They had plus and minus 3.1 percentage points in margin of error with a 95-percent confidence level. ■