President Park Geun-hye’s job approval rating moved up amid tension on the Korean Peninsula over North Korea’s provocations, a local poll showed Friday.
A poll released by Gallup Korea showed 42 percent approved of the job Park is doing, up 3 percentage point from a week earlier.
It also found that those who disapproved of Park’s job performance came to 45 percent, down 4 percentage points from the previous week.
This week’s poll came as South Korea accused North Korea of stealing information from about 10 South Korean officials by hacking into their smartphones in the latest cyberattacks.
Tensions have spiked on the divided peninsula as the U.N. Security Council tightened sanctions on North Korea to punish Pyongyang for its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and long-range rocket launch on Feb. 7.
The poll also said 16 percent supported Moon Jae-in, a former leader of the main opposition Minjoo Party, in a potential presidential race.
Kim Moo-sung, head of the ruling Saenuri Party, and Ahn Cheol-soo, co-chairman of the minor opposition People’s Party, received 11 percent and 10 percent of support, respectively.
The telephone survey was conducted on 1,005 adults from March 8 through March 10 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. (Yonhap)
