President Park Geun-hye’s job approval rating fell to a 10-week low over the controversy surrounding the government’s decision to reintroduce state history textbooks, a poll showed Friday.
The survey by Gallup Korea showed 41 percent approved of what Park is doing, down 3 percentage points from a week earlier.
Those who had a negative view of Park’s job performance came to 49 percent, up 5 percentage points from a week earlier.
This week’s approval rating hit the lowest level since right before the Aug. 25 breakthrough deal that defused military tensions with North Korea was reached.
The public has been debating the pros and cons of the government’s decision to revise the current textbook publication system. Earlier this week, the government announced its final decision to require South Korea’s secondary school students to learn Korean history only with national textbooks starting in the 2017 school year.
The survey was conducted on 1,400 adults between Tuesday and Thursday, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. (Yonhap)
