S.Korean Prez's approval rating dips after Halloween crowd crush

Seoul, Nov 7

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol saw his approval rating dip slightly at the end of last week, in the aftermath of the Halloween crowd crush, a survey revealed on Monday.

In the poll of 2,521 voters conducted by Realmeter from October 31 to November 4, 34.2 per cent positively assessed Yoon's job performance, down 1.5 percentage points from the previous week, reports Yonhap News Agency.

His disapproval rating was 62.4 per cent, up 0.7 percentage point.

In terms of daily rating, support for the President dropped from 35.7 per cent November 1 to 32.5 per cent on November 4.

The steeper fall could be attributable to public criticism over Interior Minister Lee Sang-min's inappropriate remarks over the Halloween tragedy and revelations of a botched police response, Bae Cheol-ho, a senior analyst at Realmeter, said.

Lee came under fire after he said the Halloween crowd in Seoul's entertainment district of Itaewon this year was not "worryingly large" compared with previous years and the accident would not have been avoidable even if police officers and firefighters had been deployed to the area in advance.

Police also came under fire following revelations they snubbed a series of emergency calls about overcrowding on October 29 in Itaewon, where at least 156 people were killed in a crowd crush.

Bae said the mass mortality event was a seriously unfavourable factor in Yoon's approval rating, but the drop was smaller compared with the Sewol ferry disaster that took place in 2014 thanks to North Korea's recent provocations, a factor that normally strengthens conservative voters' support.

Following the Sewol ferry disaster that claimed the lives of 304 people, mostly high school students, then President Park Geun-hye saw her support rating dive 11.8 percentage points in a Realmeter poll.