S. Korean president's approval rating rises to 73.6 pct: poll

SEOUL -- South Korean President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating rose 0.8 percentage points over the week to 73.6 percent last week, a weekly poll showed Monday.

The negative assessment on Lee's conduct of state affairs fell 0.8 percentage points to 23.4 percent, according to computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) by local pollster Flower Research.

The ruling liberal Democratic Party's approval score recorded this year's high of 57.0 percent, 33.9 percentage points higher than the conservative opposition People Power Party's 23.1 percent.

Support rates for the minor left-leaning Rebuilding Korea Party and the minor rightist New Reform Party posted 2.3 percent and 3.4 percent each last week.

The pollster's separate survey of the automated response system (ARS) showed that Lee's approval rating declined 3.5 percentage points to 67.7 percent last week compared to the previous week.

The CATI and the ARS surveyed 1,007 and 1,006 voters each from Friday to Saturday. They had plus and minus 3.1 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.