President Moon Jae-in's approval rating improved significantly this week amid a brief but continued hiatus of provocations by North Korea, a poll showed Friday.

Moon's approval rating came to 73 percent in a survey conducted by Gallup Korea on Tuesday through Thursday. The latest reading marked a 8 percentage-point jump from 65 percent tallied two weeks earlier. A weeklong break over the Chuseok holiday prevented the weekly survey last week. This week's reading also marked the highest in five weeks.

The local pollster partly attributed the sharp increase to a continued pause in North Korean provocations.

"Throughout September, North Korean nuclear and other security issues came to the center of attention, while the president's approval rating continued to fall amid an exchange of strong words between the North and the United States. But in October, there have been no additional North Korean provocations," it said in a press release.

North Korea staged its sixth nuclear test Sept. 3.

Of 1,005 adults surveyed, 19 percent said they did not approve of the way the president managed state affairs, down 7 percentage points from two weeks earlier.

The approval rating of the ruling Democratic Party was tallied at 48 percent, up 3 percentage points over the cited period, while that of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party dropped 2 percentage points to 11 percent.

The splinter Bareun Party scored 8 percent, down 1 percentage point, while the approval rating of the liberal People's Party remained unchanged at 5 percent. (Yonhap)