S.Korean president's approval rating posts 46.8 pct: poll

Moon Jae-in

SEOUL, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in's approval rating inched down this week on negative sentiment towards negotiations with the United States over the defense cost-sharing for U.S. troops stationed here, a weekly poll showed Thursday.

According to the Realmeter survey, support for Moon shed 1.0 percentage point over the week to 46.8 percent this week.

The negative assessment on Moon's management of state affairs gained 2.4 percentage points to 51.0 percent.

It came as the negotiations between South Korea and the United States on how to share the upkeep cost for the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) ended without progress earlier this week.

The United States reportedly demanded around five billion U.S. dollars from South Korea for next year's upkeep cost for about 28,500 U.S. soldiers stationed here. South Korea paid about 870 million U.S. dollars this year.

The daily approval rating rebounded after Moon held a town hall meeting with 300 civilian panels, live broadcast by MBC on Wednesday night, the pollster noted.

Support for Moon's ruling Democratic Party fell 1.2 percentage points to 37.8 percent this week.

The main consecutive opposition Liberty Korea Party gained 29.9 percent of support this week, down 0.8 percentage points from the previous week.

The minor progressive Justice Party won 7.3 percent of approval score, followed by the minor conservative Bareun Future Party with 6.0 percent, the center-left Party for Democracy and Peace with 2.1 percent, and the far-right Our Republic Party with 1.3 percent.

The results were based on a survey of 1,503 voters conducted from Monday to Wednesday. It had plus and minus 2.5 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.