SEOUL, President Yoon Suk Yeol’s approval rating rose slightly to 39.5 percent, a poll showed Monday, amid positive views of livelihood-related policies, such as an increase in the medical school enrollment quota.

According to the Realmeter survey conducted from Tuesday to Friday, the positive assessment of Yoon inched up 0.3 percentage point from a week earlier, while the negative assessment fell 0.5 percentage point to 57.2 percent.

Yoon’s approval rating has been on an upward trend for the past three consecutive weeks, Realmeter said.

The pollster attributed the rise to Yoon’s push for policies related to people’s livelihoods, such as the hike in the country’s medical school enrollment quota aimed at addressing shortages of doctors in core medical services, such as pediatrics, obstetrics and emergency medicine.

The survey, commissioned by the Energy Economy News daily, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

In a separate survey on political parties, the ruling People Power Part
y had 39.1 percent of support while the main opposition Democratic Party had 40.2 percent of support.

The New Reform Party, which was launched through a merger of smaller parties consisting of defectors from the two major parties, had 6.3 percent of support. It was the first time the party has been included in the pollster’s weekly survey.

The survey, conducted Thursday and Friday, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Source: Yonhap News Agency