President Moon Jae-in's approval rating dropped slightly from a week earlier, a survey showed Monday, amid advances by opposition parties following a missile provocation from North Korea.

In a survey conducted by Realmeter, 72.5 percent of 2,535 respondents said they approved of the president's management of state affairs, down 1.5 percentage points from a week earlier.

The weekly survey was conducted on Monday through Friday. It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 1.9 percentage points.

The drop was apparently caused by the North's latest provocation on July 28 when it test launched a claimed intercontinental ballistic missile.

Moon was criticized for what many, especially opposition lawmakers, have called his lack of action.

The South Korean president returned to work Saturday after taking a five-day holiday.

Those who disapproved of the president's state management accounted for 20.9 percent of the total, up 1.7 percentage points from a week earlier, according to the local pollster.

The main opposition Liberty Korea Party, a strong advocate of retaliation against provocative North Korea, saw its approval rating rise 1.1 percentage points to 16.5 percent, while the ruling Democratic Party's approval rating slipped 2 percentage points on-week to 50.6 percent.

The approval rating of the liberal People's Party gained 2 percentage points to 6.9 percent, marking the first on-week gain in five weeks.

The splinter conservative Bareun Party scored 5.8 percent, down

0.1 percentage point from a week earlier, while the progressive Justice Party saw its rating dwindle 0.7 percentage point to 5.7 percent. (Yonhap)