SEOUL, Feb. 2 (Yonhap) -- President Moon Jae-in's approval rating continued to drop this week, a poll showed Friday, amid controversy over North Korea's participation in the Winter Olympic Games to be held here.
In a survey by Gallup Korea, 63 percent of 1,005 people polled said they approved of the way the president managed state affairs, down 1 percentage point from a week earlier. The weekly survey is conducted Monday through Friday and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
The latest reading marked the third consecutive week of decline since the second week of January, when the communist North agreed to take part in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in the first inter-Korean dialogue in more than two years.
Moon's approval rating plunged 6 percentage points, the largest margin of decline since his inauguration in May, after the divided Koreas agreed to form a unified women's hockey team for the Olympic Games, which will be held from Feb. 9-25. The latest reading also marks the lowest approval level in 17 weeks.
Those who disapproved of Moon's performance accounted for 30 percent of all respondents, up 3 percentage points from a week before.
The ruling Democratic Party, on the other hand, saw its approval rating gain 1 percentage point to 45 percent this week, while the main opposition Liberty Korea Party's rating remained unchanged at 12 percent.
The approval rating of the liberal People's Party also stayed still at 5 percent, while those of the splinter Bareun Party and the progressive Justice Party gained 1 percentage point to 8 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
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