President Park Geun-hye's approval rating has dipped under 50 percent for the first time since April, a new Gallup Korea poll showed Friday.

The poll showed that 48 percent of South Koreans approved of the job the president was doing, while 41 percent disapproved and 11 percent did not express an opinion.

Park's all-time low approval rating was 41 percent between late March and early April. Her all-time high job approval was 67 percent in September.

The latest dip came amid a controversy over the government's alleged move to privatize a new unit of the state-run Korea Railroad Corp. (KORAIL). The government has said it will not privatize the KORAIL's new unit that will run some high-speed train services. The union suspects the move would ultimately lead to its privatization and mass layoffs.

Park has suffered a series of political setbacks, including alleged meddling in the presidential election by the National Intelligence Service, South Korea's spy agency.

Park was elected a year ago and came to office in February as the country's first female president. Her father, Park Chung-hee, also served as president for most of the 1960s and 1970s.

Gallup Korea said it questioned 1,207 people between Dec. 16 and Dec. 19, and the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points (Yonhap News)