S. Korean president's approval rating rises to 69 pct: poll

SEOUL, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating rose 1.4 percentage points over the week to 69 percent last week, a weekly poll showed Monday.

The negative assessment on Lee's conduct of state affairs dipped 0.8 percentage points to 29.5 percent, according to computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) by local pollster Flower Research.

The ruling liberal Democratic Party's support decreased 1.2 percentage points to 53.2 percent, while the conservative opposition People Power Party's approval score slipped 0.5 percentage points to 26.2 percent.

Support rate for the minor left-leaning Rebuilding Korea Party and the minor rightist New Reform Party stood at 2.7 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively, last week.

The pollster's separate survey of automated response system (ARS) showed that Lee's approval rating dropped 6.2 percentage points to 58.3 percent last week compared to the previous week.

The CATI and the ARS surveyed 1,004 and 1,007 voters each from Friday to Saturday. The polls had plus and minus 3.1 percentage points in margin of error with a confidence level of 95 percent. Enditem