Supporters of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol protest the execution of the warrant to arrest him. (Yonhap)
Supporters of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol protest the execution of the warrant to arrest him. (Yonhap)

Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol has seen an uptick in his approval ratings, a poll showed Sunday.

A survey conducted by the local polling agency Gongjung found that 34.3 percent of 1,020 respondents supported Yoon while 64.4 percent did not. The poll done on Thursday was commissioned jointly by online news outlets The Public and Finance Today.

Yoon’s approval rating rose by about four percentage points compared to a previous poll conducted Dec. 23-24 by the same agency on behalf of Dailian. That earlier poll showed 30.4 percent support, itself a 12.9 percentage point increase from an earlier survey done on Dec. 9.

Among supporters of Yoon's ruling People Power Party specifically, 81.3 percent said they approved of his leadership. The percentage of ruling party supporters who disapproved of Yoon fell by four points compared to the previous survey, which had recorded a 12 percentage point decline.

In another poll conducted by Realmeter Dec. 26-27 and released on Dec. 30, the gap between approval ratings for the ruling party and the main opposition Democratic Party narrowed to 15 points. The survey commissioned by Energy Economic News showed 30.6 percent of the 1,001 respondents supported the ruling party, a 0.9-point increase from a previous week, while 45.8 percent supported the main opposition, a 4.5-point decline.

The recent rise in Yoon’s support appears to stem from a stronger consolidation of conservative voters.

On New Year’s Day, Yoon personally signed New Year's greetings and thank-you notes on A4 sheets of paper to protesters rallying 24 hours a day in front of the presidential residence. “Due to internal and external forces infringing on our sovereignty and the activities of anti-state groups, South Korea is now in danger,” he said, vowing, “With you all, I will fight to the end to protect this country.”

Polling agency Gongjung noted that one of the survey’s key findings was a 24.6 percent approval rating for Yoon among respondents in the Honam region, which includes Gwangju, South Jeolla Province and North Jeolla Province. The area has traditionally been a stronghold for liberal parties. “The solidarity of conservatives appears to be significantly emerging,” the polling agency said in its analysis Thursday.