S.Korean president's approval rating hits new low since taking office: poll

SEOUL, March 14 (Xinhua) -- South Korean president Moon Jae-in's approval rating dipped to the lowest level since he took office in May 2017, a weekly poll showed on Thursday.

According to the Realmeter survey, support for Moon declined 1.3 percentage points over the week to 45 percent this week, marking the lowest since Moon's inauguration.

Negative assessment on Moon's management of state affairs posted the highest of 50.1 percent this week, up 3.3 percentage points from the previous week.

It came after the second summit between top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un and U.S. president Donald Trump ended without agreement in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi in late February.

The no-deal summit weakened public trust in Moon's policy toward the DPRK, the pollster said.

Support for Moon's ruling Democratic Party was unchanged at 37.2 percent this week compared with a week earlier.

The main conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party garnered 32.3 percent of support this week, up 1.9 percentage points from a week ago on expectations for the party's new chief.

The minor progressive Justice Party won 6.7 percent in support score, while the minor conservative Bareun Future Party gained 5.7 percent of approval rating. The center-left Party for Democracy and Peace earned 1.9 percent of support.

The results were based on a poll of 1,510 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.