Advice for the president to cross the finish line safely

The president must not forget that the country’s future depends on his performance until the finish line.

Choi HoonThe author is the chief editor of the JoongAng Ilbo. President Yoon Suk Yeol has entered the latter half of his five-year term. When something is half done, one usually feels relief. Looking back at the 1936 Berlin Olympics at age 74, Sohn Kee-chung — the great marathoner who won the first Olympic gold medal as a Korean native — famously said, “There is no halfway point in life’s marathon. To leave no regrets, you must do your best until the finish line.” The same advice can apply to the head of state.

When you have reached a midway point, you must take a moment to look back on your journey. President Yoon started his term in May 2022 with an approval rating of 53 percent. Poll experts say that any policy push requires at least a 35 percent approval rating. The presidenct cannot achieve anything in the latter half of his term with public confidence at a dismal 17 percent.

Issues related to first lady Kim Keon Hee caused hemorrhage in Yoon’s governance drive from the start. A member of Kim’s fan club accompanying her to an official visit to the home of late President Roh Moo-hyun a month after her husband’s inauguration was rumored to be a shaman. That caused a 4 percent drop in Yoon’s approval rating. Wife risks from suspicions about her inner circle to her influence meddling in election nominations perpetuated until the midway point.

The second setback was the president’s relationship with Han Dong-hoon — the leader of the governing People Power Party (PPP) and the president’s former protégé in the prosecution. Pundits attribute the collapse of conservatism to Yoon’s inability to embrace the PPP leader more than all the mishaps related to his wife. Certainly, the tide could turn in favor of Yoon shortly before the April 10 parliamentary elections. His approval rating had risen to 39 percent thanks to his determined push for increasing the medical school admissions quota and an internal feud in the Democratic Party (DP) amid the purging of its members not loyal to its leader Lee Jae-myung. But the president failed to ride on the momentum. Instead, he raged over Han, who was the PPP’s interim leader at the time, for his ingratitude and betrayal after Han called on the presidential office to lessen all the risks from the first lady to calm public sentiment against her. Yoon’s popularity sank by 5 percent after his nomination of the former defense minister as the ambassador to Australia even though he was implicated in a case involving the mysterious death of a Marine.

The president’s approval rating went on skidding after the legislative election. Another 11 percent was lost due to a head-on clash between Yoon and Han, which pulled down the president’s approval rating to around 20 percent. When assuming a support rate of 35 percent for the PPP, at least 15 percent is owed to Han, according to political pundits. Within the conservative party, the president commands 57 percent and the PPP leader 43 percent, with the latter having the upper hand in the forward-looking paradigm. If the two fall apart, the conservative front will be divided and impaired beyond repair.

Yoon’s biggest shortcoming stems from his attitude toward others. Appointing government officials demands rigorous work, but the president made little effort to find new talents for unity. Instead, he solely relied on the pool of his campaign team and familiar faces mostly from his school alumni and the prosecution. The only refreshing face in his Cabinet was the Olympic weightlifting medalist, Jang Mi-ran, as vice minister for the Sports Ministry.

The president must pay heed to three points if he wants to cross the finish line safely. He must address issues related to his wife once and for all, mend his relationship with the party leader, and put sincere efforts into appointing senior officials. What defines a hero is the willpower to stand back up after a fall and muster the spirit and energy to continue the run. The president must not forget that the country’s future depends on his performance until the finish line.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.