Yoon’s approval rating hits four-month high at 42%

President orders new vice ministers to fight 'mercilessly' against cartels

President Yoon Suk Yeol greets Democratic Party lawmaker Hong Jeong-min at the inaugural ceremony of a local event in Gyeonggi Province, June 30. (Yonhap)

President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating for state affairs hit a four-month high, and returned to the 40 percent mark for the first time in five weeks, according to a poll released Monday.

The positive upswing has been attributed to recent developments in bilateral ties with Tokyo that reinstated Korea on its export whitelist and his order to review political subsidies.

According to the survey conducted from June 26-30 by polling agency Realmeter, commissioned by Media Tribune, positive evaluation of Yoon’s state affairs performance climbed up 3 percentage points from the previous week, reaching 42 percent. Negative evaluation of his performance declined 2.4 percentage points to 55.1 percent.

The pollster surveyed 2,505 respondents aged 18 and older nationwide.

Positive evaluations of Yoon's performance has ticked upward for the third consecutive week, following ratings of 38.3 percent in the second week of June to 39 percent in the fourth week.

Last week, Japan brought Korea back on its export whitelist, after excluding Seoul approximately for four years in an apparent protest against the South Korean Supreme Court's ruling on compensation for forced labor. Korea had earlier restored Japan to its own whitelist in April, marking an attempt to resolve the export control dispute between the two nations.

Yoon also conducted his first major Cabinet reshuffle that replaced 12 vice ministers in 11 ministries, such as those for the science, foreign affairs, unification, finance and culture ministries, and the head of the National Human Resources Development Institute last week.

During a luncheon on Monday, Yoon told the new vice ministers that his government stands against cartels, according to a written statement released by his spokesperson, Lee Do-woon.

"We are an anti-cartel government,” Yoon said, urging them to “fight mercilessly with the cartel.”

"Totalitarianism and socialism destroy democratic societies from the outside, and corrupt cartels from the inside," he added. Yoon urged the vice ministers to uphold the spirit of the Constitution in carrying out internal and foreign policies, reflecting the principles of liberal democracy.

By Shin Ji-hye(shinjh@heraldcorp.com)