President Yoon’s approval rating hits a record low

In a Gallup Korea poll released last Friday on the occasion of President Yoon Suk Yeol's second year in office, 24 percent of its respondents assessed him positively, while 68 percent disapproved of his leadership. With his approval rating hitting a record low at the beginning of his third year in the presidency, the presidential office announced that he would turn things around by making a dedicated effort to improve people’s livelihoods and better interact with citizens.

On the second anniversary of his inauguration, President Yoon visited Yeongcheon Market and Cheonggyecheon to communicate with the public. He intends to resume open forums, which were held 24 times this year until the general elections took place, to improve people’s livelihoods while increasing interactions with the press. What’s more, he will strengthen cooperation with the National Assembly and work hard to overcome a political landscape in which the ruling party is outnumbered by the main opposition.

His third year in office is likely to get off to a bad start amid political confrontation. As the government expects to use a veto on a special probe bill on the death of Corp. Chae of the Marine Corps in the upcoming cabinet meeting on Tuesday at the earliest, it will inevitably be met with the main opposition, which has already installed protest tents and signaled a stronger response. The main opposition deserves criticism for puffing up with pride following a landslide victory in the general elections and taking a recklessly unilateral posture on the government and the ruling party. However, President Yoon is also to blame for stubbornly opposing the special probe bill in question, which has gained broad public support.

With the main opposition at the helm of the National Assembly, it may be urgent to improve President Yoon’s approval rating to facilitate his remaining three years in office. On the other hand, the ruling party should also consider what led him, the person in charge of governance who suffered the worst loss ever in the general elections, to fail to gain public support. It will not be easy to boost the president’s approval rating and restore momentum for better governance through him without addressing a bunch of issues stacking up for the past two years, such as how the administration stubbornly drives policy programs that are not welcomed by most of the pubic; and many scandals involving those within the administration.

Nevertheless, President Yoon still believes that his leadership style may only need some tweaks. Even in a press conference of last week that took place for the first time in one year and nine months, he implied that he would maintain his keynote as he has had it his way so far. Even if he will resume discussions for communication with the public and people’s livelihoods, it may be difficult to win over the public's hearts by staging a perfectly orchestrated session, which is a way worse option than absurdly giving irrelevant answers to questions. After all, the public cannot relate to pretentious, insincere gestures.