[UPDATES] President Park's job approval rating falls to record low

By Park Sae-jin Posted : April 18, 2016, 09:45 Updated : April 18, 2016, 13:53

[Courtesy of Blue House]


President Park Geun-hye vowed Monday to step up economic reform and deregulation as a poll showed her job approval rating has tumbled to the lowest level since she took office in early 2013 as South Korea's first female president.

The poll published by Realmeter found that 62.3 percent disapproved of Park's job performance, up 7.8 percentage points from a week earlier while 31.5 percent said they were happy with her handling of state affairs.

The worst showing followed last week's parliamentary election in which Park's conservative Saenuri Party failed to win a majority and descended to the second largest parliamentary group.

Saenuri's approval rating fell to 27.5 percent from 34.8 percent a week earlier, while that of the Minjoo Party of Korea, led by opposition leader Moon Jae-in, rose from 27.6 percent to 30.4 percent. There was a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points in the telephone survey of 1,012 adults, which was conducted on April 14-15.

"I think the results of the election provided an opportunity to read the will of the people," she told a meeting of aides on Monday, adding her administration would "humbly" accept public opinion shown through the voting.

She stressed that South Korea should step up economic reform to head off international and external challenges.

Park, who has less than two years left of her five-year term, said last week that her reform program would focus on the introduction of greater labor market flexibility. She has seen a labor reform bill stalled in the 300-member National Assembly in which two opposition parties now have more than 160 seats.

There has been a bitter standoff over how to reform South Korea's labor market. With the country's jobless rate running high amid a delayed economic recovery, workers are afraid of losing important protections, arguing the new bill would result in lower wages and little job security.

Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
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