The ruling Democratic Party of Korea saw a slight uptick in the polls with some 42 percent support, while President Moon Jae-in flagged his highest approval rating this year, a poll showed Monday.

Support for the liberal party inched up 0.6 percentage point from last week and stood at 42.1 percent, followed by the main opposition United Future Party 33.6 percent, up 1.5 percentage points, and the People’s Party on 4 percent, according to local pollster Realmeter.

The survey was conducted on 2,507 eligible voters between March 16-20 and has a 95 percent confidence level with a 2 percentage point margin of error.

Backing for progressive Justice Party plunged markedly to 3.7 percent, down 0.6 percentage point, the lowest since the third week of April 2018.

Asked about which of the proportional representatives would earn their ballot, 38 percent of respondents said they’d vote for the ruling party-led proportional representation coalition, according to the poll.

Trailing behind at 29.4 percent was main opposition’s satellite party Future Korea Party.

People’s Party and Justice Party each garnered 6.1 percent and 6 percent support, exceeding the minimum 3 percent threshold to be eligible for a seat.

President Moon showed his best approval rating this year to date at 49.3 percent in the third week of March and rose 2.1 percentage points from a week earlier, according to Realmeter.

The rise in confidence is largely tied to Moon’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, his emphasis on March 18 calling on businesses, labor unions and financial institutions for concerted efforts to overcome the virus coupled with the first emergency economic council session convened on March 19th.

Those who did not approve of Moon’s performance dropped 1.2 percentage points to 47.9 percent and 2.8 percent either did not reply or did not give an answer.

By Kim Bo-gyung (lisakim425@heraldcorp.com)