President Park Geun-hye's approval rating continued to decline amid a corruption scandal involving her confidante, data showed Thursday.

According to Realmeter, Park's support came to 9.9 percent this week, dropping 1.6 percentage points on-week. It is the lowest to date in surveys by the pollster. The survey was conducted on 1,525 South Koreans with a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.

A separate research conducted by Gallup Korea earlier pegged Park's approval rating at 5 percent.

Park has been facing strong public discontent for weeks amid allegations she allowed her crony Choi Soon-sil to meddle in state affairs and pursue personal interests illegally.

Among the respondents, 73.9 percent claimed Park should resign or be impeached by parliament, up 13.5 percentage points on-week.

The ruling Saenuri Party's support rating also fell 1 percentage point over the period to reach an all-time low of 18.2 percent. The main opposition Democratic Party also saw its support slump 1.5 percentage point to 30.5 percent.

The splinter People's Party, meanwhile, gained 1.7 percentage points to rank as the third most popular party with 17 percent.

Among potential presidential candidates, Moon Jae-in, former head of the main opposition, topped the poll with 18.4 percent though his rating fell 1.4 percentage point.

His close rival, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's approval rating came to 18.4 percent, up 1.2 percentage points on-week. Rep.

Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party climbed 1.7 percentage points to reach 11.9 percent. (Yonhap)