Moon's approval rating falls to 47.5%

President Moon Jae-in's job approval rating dropped slightly this week, a poll showed Thursday, following a controversy over some of his picks for new ministers that led to two of his nominees stepping down.

In a survey by Realmeter, Moon's job approval rating came to 47.5 percent, down 0.2 percentage point from a separate, weeklong survey also conducted by the pollster.

The latest survey was conducted Monday through Wednesday, involving 1,510 adults throughout the nation.

The reading still marks a 1.2 percentage-point increase from the comparable survey conducted last week.

The slight drop from the last survey follows Moon's withdrawal of his nomination for his earlier pick for the new science minister, Cho Dong-ho, who was found to have taken part in what is widely believed to be a fake international science conference.

Choi Jeong-ho, Moon's original pick for the new transportation minister, has also stepped down after coming under fire for alleged real estate speculation.

Despite the drop in Moon's job approval rating, the approval rating of the ruling Democratic Party gained 0.6 percentage point to 37.8 percent from the latest weeklong survey, whose outcome is usually released the following Monday.

The approval rating of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party gained 0.3 percentage point to 30.4 percent, with that of the progressive Justice Party advancing 0.2 percentage point to 8.2 percent.

The ratings of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party and the Party for Democracy and Peace slipped 0.1 percentage point each to 5.8 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively. (Yonhap)