Seoul:President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating increased for the second consecutive week, reaching 37.9 percent, according to a recent poll.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the poll conducted by Realmeter involved 1,508 adults nationwide from last Monday to Wednesday. It revealed a 3.1 percentage point rise in positive assessments of Lee's job performance compared to the previous week, while negative assessments fell by 3.3 percentage points to 60.1 percent.

This uptick follows a period of decline that lasted 10 weeks before seeing an upward shift in the previous poll. Factors contributing to this change include President Lee's clarification of key political issues during a press conference on September 18, as well as his international engagements at the U.N. General Assembly and the South Korea-U.S. summit. The withdrawal of Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won and the resignation offer from presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik were also perceived as steps towards personnel reform.

In a separate survey conducted on 1,005 adults last Tuesday and Wednesday, the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) gained more support than the ruling Democratic Party (DP) for the first time in two weeks, with 39.4 percent backing the PPP and 38.7 percent supporting the DP. Realmeter noted that the PPP's efforts to highlight issues with the government's personnel vetting system amid the withdrawal of two minister nominees may have bolstered their support.

The margin of error for the presidential approval survey was 2.5 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level, while the political parties survey had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points at the same confidence level. Both surveys were commissioned by EKN newspaper.