President Yoon's approval rating falls for first time in 3 weeks: Realmeter

President Yoon Suk Yeol sits behind a desk on Jan. 1. [YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating fell for the first time in three weeks following the intrusion of North Korean drones into South Korea's airspace last week, a poll showed Monday.

In the poll of 2,511 voters conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Friday last week, 40 percent positively assessed Yoon's job performance, down 1.2 percentage points from the previous week.

Yoon's disapproval rating was 57.2 percent, up 0.6 percentage point.

The fall could be attributable to North Korea's drone infiltration last week and public criticism that the government did not respond properly to the provocation, Bae Cheol-ho, a senior analyst at Realmeter, said.

On Dec. 26, the North sent five unmanned aerial vehicles into the South, with one of them having flown all the way to northern Seoul. The South Korean military failed to shoot them down, raising questions over its readiness posture.

Bae added that Yoon's remarks on Pyongyang's actions, such as "firm retaliation" and the need to "overwhelmingly prepare for superior war," increased the sense of public insecurity.

On the favorability rating of political parties, the ruling People Power Party garnered 39.2 percent support, down 1.8 percentage points from the previous week, while the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) registered 45.5 percent, up 2.6 percentage points.

The DP's favorability rating seems to have increased as the party's supporters gathered against the prosecution's investigation into bribery cases allegedly connected to party leader Lee Jae-myung.

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

Yonhap