Normally a 39.2% approval rating would be a bad thing, but for President Yoon it is actually a sign of improvement:
President Yoon Suk Yeol’s approval rating rose slightly to 39.2 percent from a week earlier, a survey showed Monday.
According to the Realmeter survey, the positive assessment of Yoon’s performance rose 1.9 percentage points from the week earlier, while the negative assessment fell 1.7 percentage points.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
Here are some interesting comments from President Yoon on the First Lady’s handbag scandal:
President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday that first lady Kim Keon Hee failed to “cold-heartedly reject” a visitor armed with a hidden camera, speaking for the first time on allegations she accepted a luxury handbag from the man in 2022.
Yoon said in an interview with KBS TV that the bag was given to her as a “political maneuver” as it was filmed with a camera hidden inside a watch and the footage was only released last year ahead of an election year.
“The fact that she was unable to cold-heartedly reject him was the problem, if one can call it a problem, and it is a little regrettable,” he said. The interview was filmed on Sunday and aired Wednesday night.
Yonhap
Here are the details on how this was a planned political setup:
Yoon had come under growing pressure to address the allegations surrounding the first lady, even as his office maintained the Christian Dior bag, valued at around 3 million won (US$2,200), was given to her by a Korean American pastor in September 2022 as part of a premeditated hidden camera trap.
The issue was seen as a liability for the ruling party ahead of the April 10 parliamentary elections, as the incident occurred after Yoon took office as president in May 2022.
Yoon said in the interview that the incident took place when the couple were still living at their private apartment unit in southern Seoul, where his wife kept an office in the basement, before moving into the new presidential residence.
He suggested the pastor visited her at the office after claiming to have had ties with her late father and insisting that they meet.
“From now on, now that we have moved into the residence, not only will such things be managed well, but I think we will have to be clear so as not to cause any misunderstandings or anxieties or concerns among the people,” he said.
You can read more at the link, but the First Lady early in the administration was still living in their private home without a staff that would normally vet and advise on visits like this. When Kim Keon-hee was given the bag she seemed surprised which demonstrates she was not expecting it and thought this was only going to be a meeting with a pastor her father supposedly knew.
The fact this camera trap was executed early in Yoon’s presidency in 2022, but released shortly before the 2024 elections shows how this was a political setup to infleunce the upcoming election. President Yoon has made it clear there is a process in place now to prevent political setups like this from happening again.
Here are the latest comments from President Yoon on North Korea:
President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday that the North Korean regime is an “irrational group” that has legalized the preemptive use of nuclear weapons and will likely carry out multiple provocations to interfere with South Korea’s April parliamentary elections.
Yoon’s remark came as North Korea has ratcheted up tensions on the Korean Peninsula with a series of weapons tests since the start of the year, including back-to-back cruise missile launches last Wednesday, Sunday and Tuesday. (…..)
“Such actions themselves are anti-national and anti-unification, and provocations and threats that run counter to history,” Yoon said while presiding over the annual central integrated defense council meeting at the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae.
“The North Korean regime is an irrational group that has legalized the preemptive use of nuclear weapons as the only (country) in the world to do so. If it was a sensible regime, it would abandon its nuclear weapons and search for a way for its people to live, but the North Korean regime is bent only on maintaining its hereditary, totalitarian regime,” he said.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
I think what President Yoon gets wrong is that the Kim regime is rationale from their perspective. It makes sense for them to continue to conduct weapons tests and maintain their status as a global threat to be taken seriously. Why would the U.S. make any serious concessions to North Korea during any potential negotiations if North Korea did not have proven ICBM and nuclear capabilities? These capabilities have also become a source of national pride for North Korea, a country that has little to be proud of.
It also makes sense that the Kim regime is going to continue to conduct provocations before April’s parliamentary elections. To get to any potential negotations where concessions favorable to North Korea are made they need to get Yoon and other conservatives out of office. The parlimentary elections are the first step to politically neutering ROK conservatives and set conditions for another Korean leftist to become the next President.
North Korea ultimately wants to get sanctions dropped while giving up little to nothing in return. They almost got this deal during the Moon administration and South Korea and the Trump administration in the U.S.
President Yoon best hope that Kim Jong-un does not call him on this threat. For example if North Korea was to sink a ROK naval ship would President Yoon order the ROK military to then launch an attack against a North Korean naval base to sink multiple ships in response? If he does things can quickly escalate:
President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Tuesday to punish North Korea multiple times as hard in the event it carries out a provocation against South Korea, after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for defining South Korea as a “primary foe and invariable principal enemy.”
Kim issued the call during a parliamentary meeting Monday, saying the country should revise its constitution to codify the new definition of South Korea and the North’s commitment to “completely occupying” South Korean territory in the event of war.
“The current Republic of Korea government is different from any previous government,” Yoon said during a Cabinet meeting, referring to South Korea by its formal name. “Our military has an overwhelming response capability. … Should North Korea provoke us, we will punish them multiple times as hard.”
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Of course the DPK is going to lie and claim a soju party is what caused South Korea to lose the Expo vote, but this is not a good look for a President to be out with private business CEOs like this:
President Yoon Suk Yeol toasts with Dutch Queen Maxima during a state banquet at the Royal Palace Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Dec. 13 (local time). Joint Press Corps
President Yoon Suk Yeol is mired in controversy over his recent international trips, with reports alleging he had “a secret drinking session” with accompanying business tycoons in France, and the Korean ambassador to the Netherlands being summoned by the Dutch government over Yoon staffers’ excessive demands on presidential protocol.
The Hankyoreh newspaper reported on Friday that Yoon had a closed-door dinner and drinks at a Korean restaurant in Paris on Nov. 24. Attending was Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun and other business leaders who accompanied Yoon to assist Busan’s bid to host the World Expo 2030.
It was four days before the Expo’s governing body held a vote to select the host city of the 2030 event. Busan lost to Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh in a 29-119 count, despite efforts from the government, the public and major Korean businesses.
It was Yoon’s second visit to Paris this year as part of campaigning to promote the city’s bid. The presidential office described the trip as “a tireless journey that wasted not even a second,” while the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) raised suspicion that it could have been a junket.
“While spending taxpayer’s money for a foreign visit, Yoon had a soju bomb dinner with conglomerates. Since when did binge drinking become a tireless journey?” DPK spokesperson Rep. Kang Sun-woo said in a commentary.
“Is the reason for bringing business leaders on foreign trips to find someone to join in the drinking sessions? No wonder a shocking outcome of 29-119 has unfolded.”
Lee Un-ju, a former lawmaker of the ruling People Power Party, said in a radio interview with CBS that Yoon and his cohorts behavior gives a misconception to foreign investors that Korea is a corrupt country where the government and businesses collude.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link, but President Yoon definitely has a lot of unforced errors that feeds negative press coverage of him.
President Yoon still has a low approval rating, but for the first time in a while he is showing a significant positive increase of 3% from the last poll taken a month ago:
President Yoon Suk Yeol’s approval rating increased to 37 percent from a month ago, according to a survey conducted jointly by Yonhap News Agency and Yonhap News TV on Wednesday.
The survey also showed that the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party would secure 33 percent and 32 percent of the vote, respectively, if the parliamentary elections scheduled for next April were held tomorrow.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
Is it politically smart for someone with approval ratings as low as President Yoon to be seen spending so much time with someone who was impeached?:
President Yoon Suk Yeol traveled to the conservative stronghold of Daegu on Tuesday and visited former President Park Geun-hye at her home, in what appeared to be a bid to unite conservatives ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections.
The visit came only 12 days after the two met during a memorial ceremony for Park’s late father and former President Park Chung-hee. It was not on the president’s official schedule and only disclosed afterward.
Park greeted Yoon outside her home’s entrance, whereas during Yoon’s previous visit in April last year, she greeted him inside her home, according to presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
