President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul on Tuesday. (Yonhap)
President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating inched down to 34 percent from a month ago, according to a survey conducted jointly by Yonhap News Agency and Yonhap News TV on Wednesday.
The survey also indicated that the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party would secure 33 percent and 35 percent of the vote, respectively, if the scheduled April 10 parliamentary elections were held tomorrow.
Yonhap News Agency and Yonhap News TV jointly commissioned the survey to gauge public sentiment. The survey was conducted by Metrix on 1,000 adults aged 18 and older on Saturday and Sunday.
According to the poll, the positive assessment of Yoon's performance was 34 percent, compared with 35 percent from the previous survey conducted a month ago, while the negative assessment remained at 59 percent, unchanged from a month ago.
In terms of age demographics, the poll showed that Yoon's positive assessment was highest among those in their 70s, while it decreased the most among those in their 30s, dropping from 23 percent in the previous poll to 17 percent.
Regionally, the positive assessment of respondents living in the Gangwon region and the southern island of Jeju decreased the most, slipping from 44 percent to 28 percent.
In contrast, the negative assessment of respondents living in Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang Province, considered the conservative stronghold, decreased the most, the survey showed.
The poll also indicated a close race between the People Power Party and the Democratic Party in the general elections, which are two months away.
Support for the People Power Party decreased by 2 percentage points from the previous survey and support for the Democratic Party also decreased by 1 percentage point.
The survey also showed that 13 percent had no preference for candidates.
Additionally, the survey showed that 21 percent of the respondents agreed that more candidates from the third-party bloc should be elected. However, there was no minor party with a support rate above 10 percent.
In the presumed two-way race for possible presidential candidates, People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon and Democratic Party Chairman Lee Jae-myung had the same approval rating of 36 percent, unchanged from the previous survey.
Regarding the implementation of the workplace safety law penalizing employers for serious industrial accidents, 55 percent of respondents agreed with expanding it to smaller firms for the safety of workers.
The expanded application of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act for companies with fewer than 50 employees began last month after rival parties failed to grant small businesses an additional two-year grace period.
Under the act, company owners or CEOs may face a minimum of one year in prison or fines up to 1 billion won ($749,000) in cases of fatal on-duty disasters caused by inadequate workplace safety measures.
The results had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. (Yonhap)
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