Yoon struggles amid lowest approval rating

Uncertainties cloud over Yoon’s remaining term with strong signals for a lame duck presidency, observers say

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during an emergency economic and security meeting of ministers and senior presidential aides at the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul on Sunday. (Yonhap)

As President Yoon Suk Yeol hit the halfway mark of his five-year term Sunday, he faced pressure from a record-low approval rate coupled with growing threats from the opposition to approve a bill mandating a special counsel investigation into the first lady.

Yoon's approval rating fell to 17 percent, according to a Gallup Korea poll released Friday, marking an all-time low since the president took office in May 2022. An unnamed official from the local pollster explained the recently surfaced recorded phone call between Yoon and self-proclaimed power broker Myung Tae-kyun worked as a key factor in the respondents’ negative assessment of the president. The opposition has claimed that the recording proves that Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee inappropriately meddled in the ruling People Power Party’s candidate nomination process for the 2022 parliamentary by-elections.

Amid increasing uncertainties surrounding Yoon and his administration in the domains of diplomacy, security and the economy, Yoon has entered a period of lame-duck presidency, with the controversies surrounding his wife heavy on his shoulders, according to a political commentator.

“At the moment, Yoon has lost the much needed momentum to manage state affairs – his administration has entered a vegetative state,” commentator Park Sang-byeong said via phone.

“The Yoon administration is overwhelmed by the issue of scandals surrounding first lady Kim Keon Hee. Yoon may need to accept the main opposition’s proposal to appoint a special counsel to investigate Kim and then find a resolution that could bail him and his administration out of the current situation,” he added.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, on Sunday morning, warned the president to upend his handling of the nation’s state affairs and “immediately approve” the special counsel investigation bill into the first lady.

“If President Yoon continues to handle the nation’s state affairs in the current manner, (we) warn in the name of the people that today will not be the halfway mark of his term, but the start of his downfall,” Democratic Party spokesperson Han Min-soo said in a press briefing held at the National Assembly.

“If President Yoon even has an ounce of conscience left, then he should apologize to the people (even though it is belated). (He should) change his stance towards key initiatives and immediately approve the special counsel investigation bill into Kim Keon Hee,” he added.

The Democratic Party has said that it plans to put the contentious bill to a vote at an upcoming Assembly plenary session scheduled for Thursday. The bill was recently passed by the opposition-led parliamentary legislation and judiciary committee. If passed in the upcoming plenary session, it could mark the third time that Yoon vetoes a version of the bill and it gets scrapped in a revote.

The new version of the special counsel investigation bill expands the scope of the allegations against the first lady. It seeks to address new allegations including that first lady Kim sought the help of Myung Tae-kyun, a self-proclaimed political broker, to conduct public opinion surveys favoring Yoon ahead of the 2022 presidential election.

Other allegations include: the first lady's alleged interference in the ruling party's candidate nomination process ahead of the April 10 general election this year, her alleged involvement in a stock manipulation scheme and her receipt of a luxury Dior bag that violated antigraft law.

On the other side of the political sphere, People Power Party Chair Han Dong-hoon is expected to push forward with his plan to revive the independent inspector general position to tackle the controversies surrounding the first lady. The position, which is tasked with investigating corruption accusations made against the president's family but has remained vacant since 2016.

The ruling party leader has called for reform of the conservative bloc and to bring back the independent inspector general position to regain the public trust. The ruling conservative party's crushing defeat in the April general elections, which led to the liberal main opposition's securing of a majority in the 300-seat Assembly, has prompted widespread calls for a change in Yoon's style of leadership and policy direction.

In a bid to navigate economic and security shifts that could come with US President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office, Yoon convened an economic and security meeting of ministers and senior presidential aides in the afternoon.

Observers say that a second Donald Trump administration is projected to bring changes and fuel unpredictability to the South Korea-US alliance as well as the security situation on the Korean peninsula. Seoul could face pressure to bear a greater cost burden for stationing US troops in South Korea amid escalating North Korean provocations, they added.

By Jung Min-kyung(mkjung@heraldcorp.com)