A new nationwide poll suggests the number of South Koreans expecting better inter-Korean relations has surged since the start of the Moon Jae-in administration last month.

The National Unification Advisory Council, a presidential advisory body, said Thursday five percent of South Koreans polled via telephone early this month said relations between the two Koreas are likely to improve significantly going forward. Forty-eight-point-one percent said relations would simply improve.

That's up by 13-point-nine percentage points from three months earlier when 34-point-two percent of those polled said the inter-Korean relations will improve or significantly improve. The latest figure is the highest since the council began announcing the quarterly poll in the first quarter of 2015.

The portion of those expecting worsening relations with the North, either moderately or significantly, also dropped sharply to 12-point-nine percent from 21-point-three percent in the first quarter.

An official of the council said the new poll reflects the heightened public expectation for North Korea policies by the Moon administration.

The poll was conducted on one-thousand South Korean adults across the country between June ninth and June eleventh and had a 95 percent confidence level with a margin of error of plus or minus three-point-one percentage points. 

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