{"id":2197865,"date":"2022-08-01T15:13:46","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T06:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/pro\/?p=2197865"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:11:48","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:11:48","slug":"south-korean-president-hemorrhages-support-as-unforced-errors-pile-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2022\/08\/south-korean-president-hemorrhages-support-as-unforced-errors-pile-up\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korean president hemorrhages support as unforced errors pile up"},"content":{"rendered":"
If it was time for South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to be <\/span>concerned<\/span><\/a> last week, then it is now nearing time to panic.<\/span><\/p>\n Yoon\u2019s approval stands <\/span>at just 28%<\/span><\/a> in Gallup Korea\u2019s newest poll, after polling from <\/span>RealMeter<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Gallup Korea<\/span><\/a> the previous week put his approval rate in the low 30s, with significant losses among demographics that should be his core supporters.<\/span><\/p>\n These kinds of low approval rates to start a presidential term are not unprecedented. Just months after taking office in 2007, Lee Myung-bak\u2019s approval rates had <\/span>fallen to 21%<\/span><\/a>. One poll placed his approval rate as low as <\/span>17%<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But the comparison ends there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lee\u2019s approval rates were driven to their nadir by huge street protests \u2014 <\/span>estimated<\/span><\/a> to be as large as 100,000 people \u2014 over the importation of U.S. beef and concerns about mad cow disease. Yoon has faced no such major protests and there have been no major scandals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Instead, there has been a steady stream of minor scandals, controversies over his personnel appointments, a new COVID-19 surge in South Korea and significant economic headwinds that are largely beyond his control.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But the <\/span>push to establish<\/span><\/a> a police bureau within the interior ministry to oversee the nationwide police force is illustrative of the reasons behind Yoon\u2019s declining approval rates. The move has been controversial, the police themselves have <\/span>openly objected<\/span><\/a> to the move and the interior minister threw fuel on the fire when he <\/span>compared<\/span><\/a> the police protest to a coup.<\/span><\/p>\n