S.Korea's presidential frontrunner keeps widening gap with runner-up in polls

South Korea's presidential frontrunner kept widening a gap with his runner-up in polls, with less than two weeks left before a presidential election.

According to a Gallup Korea survey released Friday, Moon Jae-in of the biggest Minjoo Party gained 40 percent of support, far exceeding his runner-up Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor center-right People's Party who garnered 24 percent.

The results are based on a weekly poll of 1,006 voters conducted between Tuesday and Thursday. It has a margin of error at 3.1 percentage points.

The gap of 16 percentage points between Moon and Ahn was higher than the prior week's 11 percentage points.

Moon's support rate was down 1 percentage point compared with the previous week, but it was lower than Ahn's 6 percentage-point decline.

Support for Ahn turned downward amid rising controversy over his attitude in recent TV debate and his negative campaigning toward Moon.

Ahn's support moved almost evenly to three other candidates. Hong Joon-pyo of the former ruling Liberty Korea Party won 12 percent of approval scores, up 3 percentage points from the previous week.

Sim Sang-jung of the minor progressive Justice Party recorded 7 percent in her approval rating, up 3 percentage points from a week earlier.

Support for Yoo Seong-min of the minor conservative Righteous Party rose 1 percentage point to 4 percent. Endit