S.Korean president's approval rating falls below 30 percent for first time

South Korean President Park Geun-hye 's approval rating fell below the 30 percent level, considered the Maginot Line to handle state affairs smoothly, for the first time since she took office in February 2013, a poll showed Friday.

Park's support rate declined this week to 29 percent, the lowest since her inauguration, according to a survey by Gallup Korea of 1,009 adults between Tuesday and Thursday. It was 1 percentage point lower than the result a week earlier.

Sixteen percent of respondents cited Park's lack of communications with the public as a main reason for negative assessment.

Another 16 percent cited the revised tax settlement system, which raised tax burden for low-income earners while reducing those for high-salary bracket.

The government announced a revised tax code under the principle of collecting less tax throughout the year and returning less in overcharge at the start of a new year.

The tax settlement at the start of a new year had been called " Tax Bonus of the 13th Month", but it was changed into a "Tax Bomb" under criticism that low income earners should pay more taxes during the tax settlement period.

The greatest threat to Park was a fall in the popularity rate among the elderly living in the southeastern South Korea, Park's political home turf.

After peaking at 49 percent in the first week of October, Park' s approval rating kept falling over a political scandal involving her former aide when she was a lawmaker. The aide allegedly intervened in state affairs though he had no official position in the government.

A whopping 80 percent hike in tobacco prices and higher indirect taxes raised public fury as such actions increase living expenses for those in the low-income bracket. Endi