The inevitable slide in popularity has finally hit President Lee. It seems like every Korean President enjoys initial high popularity and then eventually hits a sharp fall when they can’t deliver on all the promises they made during the campaign:

President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating fell 2.8 percentage points to 40.2 percent, the lowest since he took office, marking the sixth consecutive week of decline, a Realmeter poll showed Monday.

The poll, conducted Aug. 18-21 among 2,026 adults, found 56.9 percent disapproved of Lee’s performance, up 2.8 percentage points from the previous week.

Realmeter attributed the decline to growing distrust over the government’s housing policies, political clashes over judicial and constitutional issues, and security concerns following the scaling back of South Korea-US joint military exercises. The pollster said support among conservatives and those aged 70 and older had weakened.

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea also saw its support fall 6 percentage points to 41.9 percent, while the opposition People Power Party rose 4.5 points to 37.6 percent, according to a separate survey of 1,009 adults conducted Aug. 20-21.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but I had Grok create a chart that shows the Presidential approval rating at the beginning of their term and what they finished with. As that chart shows each President say deep declines in their approval rating. Moon Jae-in does stand out as being the most popular President and also the only one not bogged down with scandals:

It will see if the premature closing of the missing person cases was nefarious or just laziness on the investigator:

 A police officer suspected of closing a missing person case without confirming the woman’s safety has been placed under emergency arrest, police said Sunday.

The officer was detained without a warrant the previous day on suspicion of dereliction of duty, falsifying official electronic records, and obstruction of official duties through deceptive means, according to the Jeju Provincial Police Agency.

The emergency arrest was made after the officer was found to have closed another missing person case prematurely, revealed through the discovery of the man’s body on Saturday.

The missing woman, 37-year-old Jang Mi-ran, has yet to be found, more than three months after she was initially reported missing by her family.

In both cases, the police officer is suspected of arbitrarily closing them after telling the families that the missing people were safe.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Everyone complaining about this influencer gave him the attention he was seeking:

Japanese influencer Gamix (left) and K-pop band Ateez member San (Gamix’s Instagram account)

A Japanese influencer with more than 2 million followers on Instagram has come under fire online for making a racist eye gesture mocking Ateez member San’s performance at Seoul World Cup Stadium.

Local media reported Friday that the influencer, who goes by the name Gamix, uploaded a video Thursday recreating the K-pop singer’s dance performance to the song “Bad.”

In the video, Gamix wore a shirt made to look like the Atletico Madrid jersey that San wore during a ceremonial kickoff before a match at Seoul World Cup Stadium on Aug. 9. A photo of San wearing the shirt was displayed at the bottom of the video.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Considering the benefits of troop dispatches to both Russia and North Korea, it makes sense they would continue:

No signs have been detected of any imminent dispatch of additional North Korean troops to Russia, a lawmaker said Sunday, citing a report from the South Korean military.

North Korea, however, is believed to continue making preparations for a possible deployment of additional troops to Russia, according to Rep. Yoo Yong-won of the main opposition People Power Party.

In a report submitted to the lawmaker, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) said, “North Korea continues to prepare for deployment, but no sign of an imminent deployment of additional troops has been identified.”

The assessment comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed last month that Russia was preparing to bring in an additional 30,000 North Korean troops to a border region in the southwest to assist its war against Ukraine.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

As I have long said, I never believed the Yongsan Park plan was going to survive the pressure from developers in Seoul. There is just too much money to be made from developing the prime real estate in the middle of Seoul. The Yongsan Park is likely going to end up being much smaller than originally planned:

A senior presidential aide on Wednesday said housing development on part of land set aside for a park in central Seoul could help South Korea tackle the former US military base’s costly soil cleanup, while putting a vast tract of prime land to use.

The proposal has emerged as a contentious part of the Lee Jae Myung administration’s Aug. 13 housing supply policy, as the government seeks to accelerate the construction of homes in central Seoul to stabilize the housing market.

The Lee administration is considering public rental and specialized housing for young people and newlyweds on parts of the Yongsan Park site, but the idea has drawn opposition from the Seoul city government, Yongsan District Office and residents.

Opponents argue that the land should be preserved as a symbolic national park and a rare green space in central Seoul after more than 120 years of foreign military presence, saying that once housing is built there, it cannot be turned into green space.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.