South Korean president’s approval ratings drop after hot mic incident, poll shows
President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval ratings fell for the first time in four weeks after his remarks, caught on a hot mic in New York, caused an uproar in South Korea, a survey showed on Monday.
In the poll of 2,522 voters conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Friday last week, 31.2 per cent assessed Yoon's job performance positively, down 3.4 percentage points from the previous week, according to Yonhap news agency.
Yoon's disapproval rating was 66 per cent, up 3.8 percentage points.
The drop could be attributable to the hot mic controversy and Yoon's accusation of media manipulation after he came under fire for using vulgar words in private remarks to aides caught on a hot mic during his trip to New York last month, according to Bae Cheol-ho, a senior analyst at Realmeter.
Though the recording of Yoon's remarks was not clear due to noise, many thought that he had used foul language while talking about US Congress and US President Joe Biden. Yoon's office rejected the claim, saying he was referring to South Korea's opposition-controlled National Assembly and did not mention US Congress or Biden.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points at a 95 per cent confidence level, Yonhap reported.
The Korea Herald
Asia News Network
