Outgoing UN chief reclaims top spot in S Korean presidential polls

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks at the UN World Climate Change Conference 2016 (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco, November 15, 2016. [Photo/Agencies

The outgoing UN chief was known to have been close to President Park and the ruling party, as seen in his seven meetings with Park during her four-day trip to New York in September 2015, but he recently drew a line to the close relations.

Moon Jae-in, former head of the biggest opposition Minjoo Party who had been the frontrunner in presidential surveys for the past seven weeks, surrendered to Ban last week with an approval rating of 23.1 percent. It was 0.2 percentage points lower than Ban's.

Lee Jae-myung of the Minjoo Party, mayor of Seongnam, a city to the southeast of capital Seoul, maintained the third place at 12.3 percent, but it was down 2.6 percentage points compared with a week ago.

Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor opposition People's Party came next with a support score of 8.2 percent, almost unchanged from the prior week.