South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s approval rating fell slightly for the third straight week after his remarks on Ukraine and Taiwan raised tensions with Russia and China, a poll showed on Monday.
In the poll of 2,520 adults aged 18 or older conducted by Realmeter from April 17-21, the positive assessment of Yoon’s performance inched down 1 percentage point from the previous week to 32.6 percent, reports Yonhap News Agency.
The President’s disapproval rating was 64.7 percent, up 1.3 percentage points from the previous week.
In the latest poll, diplomacy and national security were the most mentioned factors in making both positive and negative assessments of Yoon’s performance.
The pollster suggested that this may have been influenced by a recent interview with Reuters, in which he signaled a shift in the country’s policy of providing only non-lethal aid to Ukraine, and expressed opposition to changing the status quo by force with regard to tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Both Russia and China bristled at the remarks.
The approval rating of the main opposition Democratic Party also decreased by 3.1 percentage points to 45.7 percent over the “cash envelope” electioneering scandal involving its former leader.
The scandal centers on allegations that envelopes containing a total of 94 million won ($70,570) in cash were handed out to party members, including some 10-20 lawmakers, to help Song Young-gil, be elected as party leader ahead of the party’s national convention in May 2021.
