S.Korean president's approval rating rises after overseas trips

SEOUL - South Korean President Moon Jae-in saw his approval rating increase last week on positive assessment over his overseas trips to the United States and Germany, a weekly survey showed Monday.

According to a Realmeter poll, Moon's support rate was 76.6 percent last week, up 1.3 percentage points from the previous week.

The result was based on a survey of 2,518 voters conducted from last Monday to Friday. It has 2 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.

Moon's higher popularity followed his visit to Washington in late June where he held his first summit meeting with US President Donald Trump.

According to the joint statement released after the bilateral summit, Trump supported South Korea's leading role in fostering an environment for a peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula.

Moon, who took office on May 10, returned home Monday after attending the summit of Group of 20 (G20) leading economies.

On the sidelines of the G20 summit, Moon met with leaders of China, Russia and Japan as well as Germany and France.

Moon's ruling Democratic Party maintained top post with 53.4 percent in approval scores. It was followed by the main opposition Liberty Korea Party that gained 16.2 percent of support.

The minor conservative Righteous Party earned 6.6 percent in support scores. The minor progressive Justice Party won 6.2 percent, and the centrist People's Party garnered 5.1 percent.