S. Korean president's approval rating inches down to 67.9%: poll

SEOUL - South Korean President Moon Jae-in's approval rating inched down this week as some of conservative voters were affected by the extended detention of impeached President Park Geun-hye, a weekly poll showed Thursday.

According to the Realmeter survey, support for Moon was 67.9 percent this week, down 0.6 percentage points from the previous week.

The result was based on a poll of 1,547 voters conducted from Monday to Wednesday. It had 2.5 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.

A Seoul court decided last Friday to issue another arrest warrant for former President Park, who has been in custody and stood trial over corruption charges including bribery. With the warrant, Park could be detained as long as next April.

The pollster said a part of conservative voters withdrew from their support for President Moon due to the extended detention. Park denounced the extension as a political retaliation.

Moon's ruling Democratic Party kept a top post with 49.1 percent in support scores. It was followed by the main opposition Liberty Korea Party with 18.3 percent, which was down 0.6 percentage points from a week earlier.

The centrist People's Party won 6.3 percent of support, while the minor conservative Righteous Party and the minor progressive Justice Party garnering 6.2 percent and 4.6 percent respectively.