President’s support bouncing back

President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating bounced back helped by growing public sentiment in favor of his drive to reform the prosecution, according to a poll released Monday.

According to the Realmeter poll conducted for five days from Sept. 23, support for the Moon administration rose 2.1 percentage points from a week earlier to 47.3 percent. The survey of 2,506 adults nationwide also showed 50.2 percent of respondents remained negative over Moon’s handling of state affairs, down 1.8 percentage points from the previous week.

“Moon’s approval rating increased thanks to the widening negative public sentiment of the prosecution’s investigation into Cho and a series of positive outcomes in diplomacy on the sidelines of last week’s United Nations General Assembly,” the agency said.

Last week, Moon engaged in a hectic diplomatic schedule at the U.N. headquarters in New York, where he held a summit with President Donald Trump and claimed a non-official agreement from him in advancing denuclearization talks between the U.S. and North Korea. Moon also delivered a speech on peace on the Korean Peninsula at the U.N.

The Seoul-based poll agency said Moon’s approval rating nudged up because of the public’s negative perceptions on the prosecution’s intensive search and seizure operation into the home of new Justice Minister Cho Kuk over corruption allegations surrounding himself and his family.

Moon’s approval rating took a hit in mid-August when the President nominated Cho as the new minister as part of his push for reform of the prosecution and the overhaul of the ministry.

Cho was one of the closest aides to President Moon, having served as a senior presidential secretary for civil affairs before the nomination. Cho’s 28-year-old daughter is at the center of the controversy with irregularities regard her university and graduate school admissions.

Despite the widening controversy, the President pushed ahead with appointing Cho as justice minister Sept. 9.

The negative public sentiment against the Moon administration and Cho reached a peak in the third week of September when negative ratings for Moon came in at 52 percent.

Another poll conducted by the nation’s JoongAng Ilbo, a far-right vernacular daily, claimed Moon’s approval rating hit a record low of 37.9 percent.

The survey on 1,000 adults was carried out for two days from Sept. 23.

According to the Realmeter weekly poll, the negative ratings on Moon have surpassed the positive one since the third week of August amid the burgeoning corruption scandals over Cho’s “privileged” daughter.

Against the backdrop of the recovering approval rating, the Moon administration is expected to hold a stronger hand in its policy drives, such as with inter-Korean affairs and the political deadlock with Japan.