Tag: Moon Jae-in

President Moon and his Democrat Party keeps dropping in the approval ratings, but the Korean conservatives have yet to offer someone as their counter to him to capitalize on his unpopularity:

President Moon Jae-in’s job approval rating has fallen to a record low of 37.4 percent, a poll showed Thursday, with a rift between the justice minister and the top prosecutor deepening and housing prices in major areas continuing to rise.

Public approval for the ruling Democratic Party (DP) also dropped to 28.9 percent, the lowest since the launch of the Moon administration in May 2017, while that of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) rose to 31.2 percent, according to Realmeter.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest world leader to contact Joe Biden after his media declared election win:

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his incoming U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, agreed to work closely together to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, as they had a 14-minute phone conversation Thursday, Cheong Wa Dae said.

Biden described South Korea as a “linchpin” of security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, according to Moon’s spokesman Kang Min-seok.

Moon asked Biden to “communicate closely” for the forward-looking development of the Seoul-Washington alliance, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and establishment of lasting peace here.

The president cited the allies’ 70 years of partnership for the protection of such shared values as democracy and human rights, Kang said.

Biden reaffirmed Washington’s firm security commitment to South Korea and said that he would “closely cooperate” for a resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue, he added.

They also agreed to expand cooperation on global challenges, including COVID-19 and climate change, and agreed to meet at an early date after Biden’s inauguration, Kang said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but really nothing new in this phone call.

I don’t think this is going to get much traction considering the control of most of the media the Moon administration has, but I am sure South Korean conservative politicians are enjoying this payback after what former President Park went through:

In response to the controversy over the reporting time to Moon, Kim Chong-in, interim leader of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), said the incident is a national disaster due to the Moon administration’s lackluster security awareness.

“The Moon administration’s rosy prospects have led to the loss of a precious life of a South Korean citizen,” he said. 

“President Moon needs to explain what he did for three days from Monday.” 

He added that the government may have wanted to hide something from the public by disclosing the incident three days later.

The current situation leaves Moon in a similar situation to that faced by his predecessor in the wake of the Sewol ferry sinking in 2014. While the ferry carrying more than 300 passengers was sinking, the rescue operations were bungled, causing people to speculate on what then-President Park was doing for the first critical seven hours. Many still question the claims of presidential aides that she was receiving updates at her residence.

Rep. Joo Ho-young, the PPP floor leader, said President Moon should have attended the ministerial meeting on early Wednesday morning considering the severity of the incident.

“It is questionable about President Moon’s follow-up measures. It is not comprehensible whether President Moon was unaware of the incident or he ignored it,” Joo said.

Korea Times via a reader tip

You can read more at the link.

No matter how much more his numbers go down I don’t see President Moon replacing Choo Mi-ae because how well she has squashed every scandal against his administration:

The growing allegations surrounding Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae over her son’s military service are beginning to affect the approval ratings for President Moon Jae-in and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), as support for the President and the party has dropped significantly among men and the younger generation.

In a poll of 1,504 adults conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Wednesday, 45.7 percent of the respondents believed Moon was doing a good job, down 2.4 percentage points from a week before, while 49.5 percent disapproved of his job performance, an increase of 1.4 percentage points.

The decline was large among people in their 20s, whose support for Moon dropped by 5.7 percentage points; among men, by 9 percentage points; and among students, 10.7 percentage points.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the ruling party is trying to claim that Choo’s attempts for favorable treatment for her KATUSA son were just something any concerned parent would do. How many parents in Korea can call up the Defense Ministry and advocate for extended leaves, assignments in Seoul, and requests to be an interpreter at the Winter Olympics?

It will be interesting to see if President Moon tries to crush opposition rallies by using the coronavirus as an excuse:

The President demanded the authorities bring criminal charges against those hampering epidemiological investigations and quarantine operations and, if necessary, apprehend them on site and seek an arrest warrant.

“The core principle of the nation’s fight against COVID-19 is swiftly detecting and testing those who have come into close contact with coronavirus patients, and isolating and treating infected people,” Moon said during a visit to the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s (SMG) office in charge of the city’s disaster and safety countermeasures. “But some people and organizations are systematically hampering the government’s efforts to stem the spread of the virus.”

Some local churches are facing mounting controversy and public anger as they have appeared to be uncooperative in tracing and isolating potential COVID-19 patients.

Among the churches is the Sarang Jeil Church in Seoul led by conservative pastor Jun Kwang-hoon who has led several anti-government rallies, with the most recent one held in central Seoul Aug. 15. The rally brought together thousands of demonstrators despite the government’s advice to follow social distancing guidelines.

Korea Times via a reader tip

You can read more at the link.

You can read more at the link, but President Moon is likely betting that the majority of the Korean media will continue to cover for the ruling party’s sexual misconduct scandals:

Questions are rising over why President Moon Jae-in is not making any mention of a series of sexual harassment scandals involving star politicians of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).

His silence on the issue is considered unusual, given that he had pledged to be a “feminist President,” and has underscored the need for supporting and empowering women and put a special emphasis on raising the proportion of female leaders in his Cabinet and the presidential office.

There was an expectation that Moon, during Monday’s meeting with senior aides, would mention the death of former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and the allegations that he sexually abused his secretary ― a case that has made headlines in the local media since Park was found dead in an apparent suicide, July 10.

But Moon failed to mention anything related to the Park scandal. The President has also distanced himself from the sexual violence scandals of other DPK heavyweights, such as former South Chungcheong Province Governor An Hee-jung and former Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don. Both politicians stepped down from office due to #MeToo allegations from women who worked closely with them.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Despite President Moon’s overall great handling of the coronavirus pandemic that saw his popularity rise to 70% in April, his support has sharply dropped because of the growing scandals:

One of the things that has set President Moon Jae-in apart from his predecessors is that his popularity rating has enjoyed a stable level throughout his presidency since May 2017.

But latest surveys reflect a noticeable loss of public confidence in President Moon and his administration in the past few weeks due to some glaring policy missteps, including those related to real estate.

However, the increased disappointment is not with the missteps themselves but the “two-faced” attitude and discordance between words and actions by some of the President’s key aides and ranking government officials. The disappointment stems from the fact that the Moon administration was launched under the banner of “fairness and justice.”

This hypocrisy was highlighted by the recent controversy surrounding chief of staff Noh Young-min, who belatedly followed his own recommendation he had made late last year for senior presidential aides owning more than one home to sell off all properties other than their main residence. The recommendation came in response to rising public discontent toward the government’s failure to contain soaring housing prices.

When Cheong Wa Dae announced earlier this month that the chief of staff would sell one of his two homes, the public became even more angry because the decision to sell a less lucrative apartment in Cheongju, South Chungcheong Province, was seen as a move to retain a more valuable property in Seoul’s Seocho-gu. Yoon Seong-won, presidential secretary for land, infrastructure and transport, was criticized for a similar move, trying to keep a more expensive property in southern Seoul instead of a house in Sejong City, the nation’s as-yet underdeveloped administrative capital.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the article also mentions the Cho Kuk Scandal as another major factor of discontent that people remember. Not mentioned in the article are all the other scandals such as the Druking Scandal, the Comfort Women Scandal, the Real Estate Speculation Scandal, and various election interference scandals.

With that all said 44% for a Korean President is still not a horrible number and well above his all time low of 39% that occurred during the Cho Kuk Scandal. However, if the trend continues he could find himself back at 39% very soon.

Here is the latest headline from John Bolton’s book:

U.S. President Donald Trump didn’t want South Korean President Moon Jae-in to join him during his third meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in June 2019, according to John Bolton, the former U.S. national security adviser, in his memoir.    
   
“The Room Where It Happened,” the Bolton memoir set to be published Tuesday, details the three Kim-Trump meetings and the considerable amount of energy expended by Bolton to thwart any U.S. concessions to North Korea.  
   
In a tweet on June 28, 2019, Trump — who was on an official trip to Japan and Korea — offered to shake hands and say hello with North Korean leader Kim, which led to the impromptu meeting days later on June 30 in the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom. This marked the first time a sitting U.S. president stepped onto North Korean soil, and took place during Trump’s visit to Seoul for a summit with Moon.    
   
According to Bolton, “Trump wanted Moon nowhere around, but Moon was determined to be present, making it a trilateral meeting if he could.” Bolton had “entertained the faint hope that this dispute with Moon could tank the whole thing, because it was certain Kim didn’t want Moon around.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Why are these people in the Moon administration surprised by any of this? This is all straight out of the North Korean playbook:

 The office of President Moon Jae-in strongly condemned the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Wednesday for her “rude and senseless” criticism of Moon and warned that it won’t tolerate the North’s unreasonable words and acts anymore.

“It is a senseless act to disparage (Moon’s speech earlier this week) in a very rude tone without understanding its purpose at all,” Yoon Do-han, Cheong Wa Dae’s senior secretary for public communication, said in a war of words between the two Koreas. (……..)

It’s an “unprecedentedly unreasonable” act to deliberately distort the purpose of the proposal, he stressed, adding that the North should have “basic etiquette.”

The North said Moon had “begged” it to accept his scheme to send either National Security Director Chung Eui-yong and National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon as a special envoy.

Making public such a sensitive issue unilaterally is something of a taboo in diplomacy and other state-to-state relationships.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but as long as Seoul’s response continues to be strongly worded statements they will continue to keep being pushed around by the Kim regime. They know there will never be any real consequences for their provocations as long as Moon is in power.

It is pretty clear that Kim Jong-un is using his sister to be the hard liner to push the Moon administration to make as many concessions as possible. When concessions are made then Kim Jong-un will pop up looking like a reasonable peacemaker.