Park's approval rating rebounds to 40 pct range amid tensions

President Park Geun-hye's job approval rating has rebounded to the 40 percent range for the first time in roughly three months, a poll showed Monday.A poll conducted by polling agency Realmeter put Park's approval rating at 41 percent, up 1.1 percentage points from the previous week.Those who disapproved of Park's job performance came to 54.2 percent, up 0.4 percentage points from the previous week.Park's bounce back came as conservatives rallied around the president following the tension over North Korea's landmine attack and its subsequent artillery attack against South Korea.South Korea accused the North of planting the mines inside the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas, a charge denied by North Korea.The North also fired artillery shells across the border Thursday, prompting South Korea to fire back dozens of shells. But the North has claimed that it did not start Thursday's exchange of fire and accused Seoul of fabricating the allegations that the communist nation fired first.The survey was conducted on 1,000 adults between Aug. 18 and 19 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. (Yonhap)