SEOUL-- Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung came out ahead of former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl by a substantial margin in a new hypothetical two-way poll between the leading presidential contenders, released Thursday.

In the joint survey conducted jointly by four polling agencies on 1,005 people over the age of 18 from Monday to Wednesday, 43 percent said they would vote for Lee in a hypothetical one-on-one duel.

The poll was conducted by Embrain Public, Kstat Research, Korea Research International and Hankook Research.

Of the respondents, 33 percent said they would vote for Yoon, while 14 percent said they had no preferred choice. Four percent said they would vote for a third candidate.

Among all potential presidential contenders, the Gyeonggi governor was also seen leading the race at 27 percent, followed by Yoon at 21 percent and Rep. Lee Nak-yon, former head of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), at 10 percent.

Yoon, a leading opposition runner, was shown tied with Rep. Lee at 33 percent in their hypothetical two-way poll.

President Moon Jae-in's job approval rating, meanwhile, stood at 44 percent, unchanged from a week ago. His disapproval rating also remained the same at 49 percent.

In terms of parties, the DP's approval rating dropped 5 percentage points to 30 percent, while that of the main opposition People Power Party slid 1 percentage point to 28 percent. The minor liberal Justice Party saw its rating rise 2 percentage points to 6 percent.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent level of confidence.

Source: Yonhap News Agency