President Moon Jae-in continued to suffer a drop in his approval rating last week, a poll showed Monday, partly due to a controversial government decision to provide humanitarian assistance to North Korea despite the communist state's latest nuclear provocation.

In a poll conducted by Realmeter, 65.6 percent of 2,533 respondents said they approved of the way the president managed state affairs. The weekly survey was conducted from Monday to Friday. It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 1.9 percentage points.

The latest reading marked a 1.5 percentage point decrease from a week earlier, the fourth consecutive week of drop.
 
The local pollster noted the approval rating dipped to the weekly lowest of 65.4 percent on Thursday when the government approved US$8 million worth of aid to the communist North.

The decision prompted heated reactions from opposition parties, though the government said the exact timing of the aid will be decided later.

Out of those surveyed, 29.4 percent said they did not approve the president's management of state affairs, up 2.6 percentage points from a week earlier.

The approval rating of the ruling Democratic Party came to 50.7 percent last week, gaining 1.4 percentage points from a week earlier and breaching the 50 percent mark for the first time in three weeks, according to Realmeter.

The main opposition Liberty Korea Party's rating slipped 1.6 percentage points on-week to 16.8 percent.

The rating of the splinter Bareun Party rose 1.4 percentage points to 6.4 percent, with that of the liberal People's Party slipping 0.3 percentage point to 5.5 percent.

The progressive Justice Party scored 5.2 percent, down 0.6 percentage point. (Yonhap)