SEOUL– President Yoon Suk-yeol’s approval rating edged up to 32 percent last week, a survey showed Monday, rebounding from a drop blamed on his use of foul language caught on a hot mic during a trip to New York.

The Realmeter poll of 2,012 people from Tuesday to Friday showed that Yoon’s approval rating rose 0.8 percentage point from a week earlier while his disapproval rating fell 0.2 percentage point to 65.8 percent.

The rating had dropped after he was caught on a hot mic making remarks that appeared to include vulgar words. Also at issue was whether he talked about U.S. Congress or President Joe Biden when using such words as the recording was not clear due to noise.

Yoon’s office said he only talked about domestic politics without mentioning U.S. Congress or Biden.

Realmeter said Yoon’s rating rebounded as the hot mic incident has been overshadowed by other issues, such as former President Moon Jae-in rejecting a request from the state audit agency to answer questions in writing in connection with the 2020 death of a fisheries official at the hands of North Korea.

Moon’s administration has been accused of concluding without enough evidence that the official was killed while attempting to defect to the North. Since Yoon came into power, the government revisited the case and said there is no sufficient evidence showing the official attempted to defect.

The survey also showed that Yoon’s ruling People Power Party saw its approval rating fell 0.1 percentage point to 35.3 percent, while the rating of the main opposition Democratic Party rose 3.1 percentage points to 49.2 percent.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

Source: Yonhap News Agency