SEOUL, June 20 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in's approval rating fell this week amid public criticism over the military's failure to spot a small wooden boat from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) until it crossed the maritime border into the South Korean eastern port, a weekly poll showed Thursday.
According to the Realmeter survey, support for Moon dipped 2.7 percentage points over the week to 46.8 percent this week.
The negative assessment on Moon's management of state affairs gained 2 percentage points to 47.4 percent.
It came as the military failed to detect a small DPRK wooden boat, which crossed the inter-Korean sea border and sailed undeterred for about three days in the South Korean territorial waters before arriving at the eastern port city of Samcheok.
South Korea's Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo publicly apologized over the failure earlier in the day, promising to reprimand those responsible for it and strengthen vigilance posture.
Support for Moon's ruling Democratic Party declined 3.1 percentage points over the week to 37.9 percent this week.
The main conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party won 29.7 percent of support this week, down 1.3 percentage points from the previous week.
It was followed by the minor progressive Justice Party with 6.9 percent, the minor conservative Bareun Future Party with 6.1 percent and the center-left Party for Democracy and Peace with 2.7 percent, respectively.
The results were based on a poll of 1,502 voters conducted from Monday to Wednesday. It had plus and minus 2.5 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.
