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| President Park Geun-hye makes a public apology Tuesday for the leak of official documents to a confidant, who has no position in her administration. / Yonhap |
By Lee Jin-a, Park Si-soo
President Park Geun-hye's approval rating has collapsed to its lowest since her inauguration in February 2013, amid a swirling influence-peddling scandal involving her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil.
In a nationwide survey of 1,528 adults by Realmeter, Park's approval rating was 17.5 percent on Wednesday, down 5.2 percentage points from 22.7 percent on Tuesday when she offered a surprise apology over the leak of classified presidential documents to Choi.
Nearly 43 percent of people demanded that Park step down; 21.5 percent wanted her to overhaul her personnel management; 17.8 percent called on the President to relinquish her ruling party membership, while 10.9 percent were satisfied with Park's apology.
By age group, 42.7 percent of respondents in their 60s said they still support Park, while 29 percent of those in their 50s, 16.3 percent in their 40s, 7.9 percent in their 30s and 3.4 percent in their 20s also did.
By regions, Park's approval rating in her political strongholds of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province dropped to 32.7 percent, the lowest since her inauguration, while Seoul marked 19.9 percent, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province 20.7 percent, Daejeon, Sejong and Chungcheong Province 20.6 percent, and Busan, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang province 20.6 percent.
According to Realmeter, the survey was held from Oct. 24 to 26 via phone interview, automatic reply system and smartphone applications. The result has a confidence level of 95 percent, with a sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percent.
