Yoon’s approval rating rises to 31 percent: survey

SEOUL, Oct. 20 (Yonhap) — President Yoon Suk-yeol’s approval rating rose to 31 percent this week, a survey showed Thursday, rebounding from a decline over his use of foul language caught on a hot mic during a trip to New York.

The poll of 1,000 people from Monday to Wednesday found that Yoon’s approval rating gained 2 percentage points from two weeks earlier.

The poll, conducted by pollsters Embrain Public, Kstat Research, Korea Research and Hankook Research, also showed that those who gave negative assessments dropped 6 percentage points to 59 percent in the same period.

Yoon’s approval rating had declined after he was caught on a hot mic making remarks that appeared to include vulgar words. Also at issue was whether he talked about U.S. Congress or President Joe Biden when using such words as the recording was not clear due to noise.

Yoon’s office said he only talked about domestic politics without mentioning U.S. Congress or Biden.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.