President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating in South Korea has jumped into the 60 percent range since the recent inter-Korean Summit in Pyongyang with the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

 

According to a local poll conducted by Realmeter on Monday, Moon’s approval rating was 61.9 percent, up 8.8 percentage points from a week earlier. The weekly surveys involved 2,507 adults and were carried out throughout the nation from Sept. 17 through Friday.

Only 32.3 percent of respondents answered that Moon was not managing state affairs well -- down 9.4 percent from the previous week.

 

The local pollster explained that the positive evaluation of the Pyongyang Summit, which took place Tuesday through Thursday, had increased Moon’s approval rating.

 

Support for Moon had been on a downhill slide since the second week of August, recording 53.1 percent in the second week of September, the lowest level since his inauguration in May 2017. But on Friday, the day after the inter-Korean summit ended, his daily approval rating surged to 65.7 percent. On Tuesday, the first day of the summit, his daily approval rating had recorded only 57.7 percent, but had already risen to 61.4 percent on Wednesday, when the leaders of the two Koreas announced the joint Pyongyang Declaration.

 

The third inter-Korean summit has also influenced support for the country’s political parties. In the same survey, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea saw its approval rating go up 4.3 percentage points to 44.8 percent. Meanwhile, that of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party stood at 18.6 percent, 2.3 percentage points down from the previous week.

 

The progressive minor opposition Justice Party followed with 8.3 percent, while the center-right opposition Bareunmirae Party posted 5.7 percent and the Party for Democracy and Peace 3.1 percent.

 

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)