Park’s approval rating moves up after U.S. visit

SEOUL, April 8 (Yonhap) — President Park Geun-hye’s job approval rating edged up on the back of public support for her successful visit to the United States, a poll showed Friday.

The poll released by Gallup Korea showed 43 percent approval of the job Park is doing, up 5 percentage points from a week earlier.

The poll attributed the jump to Park’s recent trip to Washington D.C., where she attended a summit on nuclear security meant to discuss how to tackle the threats of nuclear terrorism and ways to strengthen international cooperation on nuclear security.

The poll also found that those who disapproved of Park’s job performance came to 46 percent, down 5 percentage points from the previous week.

Separately, the approval rating of the splinter People’s Party hit a record high since its launch in February, the poll showed.

The findings released by Gallup showed 14 percent of people approved of how the People’s Party is doing, up a marginal 2 percentage points from the previous week.

The ruling Saenuri Party’s approval rating has edged up by 2 percentage points to 39 percent, while the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea’s approval rating remained unchanged at 21 percent.

The telephone survey was conducted on 1,005 adults Monday and Wednesday, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.