S.Korean president's approval rating falls to lowest at 29 pct

South Korean President Park Geun-hye's approval rating declined to the lowest since she took office in 2013, a pollster survey showed Friday.

According to a Gallup Korea poll of 1,004 adults conducted between April 19 and 21, respondents saying President Park is doing well in state management stood at 29 percent.

It was a 10 percentage-point drop compared with the previous week, equaling to the lowest tallied in the fourth week of last January, the first week of last February and the third week of last June.

Those responding that President Park is doing badly jumped to 58 percent, up 10 percentage points from the previous week.

The worsened results came after Park's conservative Saenuri Party was unexpectedly defeated in the April 13 parliamentary election. The ruling party secured 122 seats in the 300-member National Assembly, lower than 123 seats won by the main opposition Minjoo Party. The minor People's Party gained 38 seats.

Park lost popularity especially among those in their 20s, with only 11 percent of them supporting Park's state management. The approval rating among those in their 60s was the highest at 57 percent.

The biggest reason for the negative assessment was lack of communications, followed by failure of economic policies.

Park's support rating declined even among the elderly and those living in southeastern regions, which were the main political home turf for the president.

The approval rating in North Gyeongsang province tumbled from 62 percent in the fifth week of March to 34 percent this week. The rate in South Gyeongsang province declined from 45 percent to 36 percent in the same period.

The support rating among those aged above 60 dropped from 63 percent to 57 percent in the cited period. The rate among those in their 50s slipped from 49 percent to 35 percent.