SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in's approval rating fell for the third consecutive week amid rising geopolitical risks on the Korean Peninsula, a weekly survey showed Monday.
According to the Realmeter poll, support for Moon was 67.1 percent last week, down 2 percentage points from the previous week.
It was based on a survey of 2,542 voters conducted for five days from last Monday. It had 1.9 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.
Support for Moon shed for three straight weeks as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s sixth nuclear test earlier this month was followed by its test of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) last week.
On Sept. 3, the DPRK detonated what it claimed was a hydrogen bomb that can be fitted atop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The country fired an IRBM over Japan last Friday.
The continued DPRK provocations stoked concerns here about the security crisis, negatively influencing the support for the South Korean leader.
Controversies over the nomination of a constitutional court chief and a cabinet member also had a negative effect on Moon's approval scores.
Moon's ruling Democratic Party gained 49.3 percent of support last week, down 0.4 percentage points from a week earlier. It marked the fourth consecutive week of a slight fall.
It was trailed by the main opposition Liberty Korea Party with 18.4 percent. Though the opposition party's support was up 1.7 percentage points from the prior week, it still maintained a wide gap with the ruling party in support scores.
The centrist People's Party and the minor progressive Justice Party garnered an identical reading of 5.8 percent. The minor conservative Righteous Party earned 5 percent of support.
