President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating rises to 37.9% after two-week increase

SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating rose for the second consecutive week last week to 37.9 percent, a pollster said Monday.

In a poll conducted on 1,508 adults nationwide from last Monday to Wednesday, positive assessments of Lee's job performance rose by 3.1 percentage points from the previous week, while negative assessments fell 3.3 percentage points to 60.1 percent, Realmeter said.

Lee's approval rating fell for 10 weeks before turning upward in the previous poll, helped by his clarification of key political issues during a press conference Sept. 18.

"His communication through the press conference and his overseas diplomacy at the U.N. General Assembly and the South Korea-U.S. summit worked in his favor," the pollster said, noting the withdrawal of Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won and resignation offer of presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik were also seen as a demonstration of his commitment to personnel reform.

In a separate poll conducted on 1,005 adults last Tuesday and Wednesday, support for the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) surpassed that for the ruling Democratic Party (DP) for the first time in two weeks, with the PPP garnering 39.4 percent and the DP 38.7 percent.

Realmeter said the PPP appeared to have rallied support by helping expose the government's poor personnel vetting system amid the withdrawals of two minister nominees.

The survey on the president had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level, while the one on political parties had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

Both were commissioned by EKN newspaper.