President Park Geun-hye appears to have won back some of her old supporters after her surprise offer last week to curtail her remaining time in office. Park’s approval rating has risen to 10.5 percent, the latest Realmeter survey shows.

According to the local pollster, Park’s weekly poll reading marked its first uptick in eight weeks, rising by 0.8 percentage point.

Daily figures reveal a clear rebound over two days -- Nov. 29 when Park made her third national address and Dec. 2 when the ruling Saenuri Party’s adopted Park’s early departure in April as its official stance. Support of Park numbered 10.9 percent on the former date and 11.9 percent on the latter. 


“Park’s address and the Saenuri Party’s official adoption of Park’s early departure schedule seem to have consolidated support for the embattled president,” Realmeter explained.

The increase came mainly from conservative regions such as Daegu, Busan and Chungcheong provinces and Park’s core support base of senior voters aged 60 or older. 

The Saenuri Party, whose leadership has steadfastly stood behind Park despite the major scandal, also saw public support rebound. Its popularity was 17.8 percent, up 1.6 percent from a week earlier, behind the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea’s 32.5 percent.

Among potential candidates for the next presidency, Moon Jae-in, the former Democratic Party leader, was still in the lead with 20.8 percent. The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was in the second place at 18.9 percent.

A firebrand politician and Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung continued his upward streak to 14.7 percent, up 2.8 percent from the previous week.

The survey, which was conducted on 2,528 adults between Nov. 28 and Dec. 2, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points with a confidence level of 95 percent.

(milaya@heraldcorp.com)