Category: Korean Government

President Yoon’s approval rating is now down to 30 points:

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s approval rating fell to a six-month low, raising alarms over his ability to handle state affairs.

A sense of crisis is spreading within the ruling People Power Party (PPP), forcing Yoon and the ruling bloc to focus on addressing rising living costs and other economic difficulties, which will affect the PPP’s campaign in the crucial general elections in April next year.

According to a Gallup Korea poll released on Friday, Yoon’s approval rating plunged to 30 percent, down 3 percentage points from a week earlier. His disapproval rating stood at 61 percent, also up 3 percentage points during the same period.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is just another example of how North Korea does not care about unenforceable UN resolutions:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, speaks to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, right, as they inspect Russian warplanes at the Vladivostok International airport in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk Yeol in an interview published Sunday called the military cooperation between North Korea and Russia “illegal and unjust,” as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held talks with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Vladivostok Saturday.  
   
“Military cooperation between North Korea and Russia is illegal and unjust as it contravenes UN Security Council resolutions and various other international sanctions,” Yoon said in a written interview with the Associated Press, warning that the “international community will unite more closely in response to such a move.”  
   
The remarks were made on the eve of Yoon’s trip to New York to attend the UN General Assembly this week. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

President Yoon has named a new Defense Minister among other cabinet positions he announced changes for:

People Power Party Rep. Shin Won-sik leaves his office at the National Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday named ruling People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker Shin Won-sik, former culture minister Yoo In-chon and former ruling party emergency committee member Kim Haeng as new defense, culture and family ministers, respectively.

The nominees are familiar faces in Korean politics, with Shin and Yu having the reputations of hardline conservatives. Pundits are saying this is in line with the conservative wing of Yoon, who has been stressing ideology and anti-communism ideas in recent public remarks.  

Korea Times

The North Korean regime and the South Korean leftists are really going to dislike Shin as the new Defense Minister since he is pro-strong ROK military and anti-Communist:

Shin is a retired three-star general and former deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has been spending most of his military career in key posts. During his discharge ceremony in 2016, Shin said the military should prepare for “unification through northern advancement,” meaning unification through toppling the North Korean regime. (……)

Shin is also one of the first people who triggered the ongoing controversies over assessing independence fighter Hong Beom-do, who was involved with the Soviet Communist Party, spearheading campaigns that resulted in Hong’s bust being removed from the Korean Military Academy. 

You can read more at the link.

Other than managing the JSA, I don’t know why South Korea would need to do any military cooperation with North Korea:

 South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday urged an immediate halt to any attempts to seek military cooperation with North Korea, amid reports Russia and the North are eyeing arms and defense technology trade.

Yoon made the remark during a summit with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta, after The New York Times reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may travel to Vladivostok in Russia next week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss a possible arms deal.

“Attempts at military cooperation with North Korea, which damage peace in the international community, should be stopped immediately,” the presidential office quoted Yoon as saying.

Yoon urged ASEAN to actively participate in efforts to block North Korea’s key sources of funding for its nuclear and missile development, such as cryptocurrency stealing and labor exports, and stressed the need for all United Nations member states to abide by U.N. Security Council sanctions on the North, including a ban on illegal arms trade, his office said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This year will be a longer than normal Chuseok season for Koreans:

President Yoon Suk Yeol (3rd from L) speaks during a regular meeting on the economy and public livelihood issues at the presidential office in Seoul on Aug. 31, 2023. (Yonhap)

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday the government will designate Oct. 2 a temporary holiday to create a six-day extended break from Chuseok and help boost domestic tourism and the economy.

Yoon made the remark while presiding over a regular meeting on the economy and public livelihood issues, saying the government will also distribute 600,000 hotel discount coupons and waive expressway tolls during the holiday period.

This year’s Chuseok fall harvest holiday will run from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1, which means the temporary holiday will be a bridge to Oct. 3 National Foundation Day, another public holiday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like President Yoon is actually trying to be a conservative who actually wants to reduce spending unlike U.S. conservatives who only seem to care about cutting spending when they are not in charge:

President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Tuesday to stick to a sound fiscal policy, strongly criticizing the preceding Moon Jae-in government for increasing national debts with reckless spending.

Yoon made the remark during a Cabinet meeting, pledging to reject temptations of spending for political purposes, as the government proposed a national budget of 656.9 trillion won (US$495 billion) for 2024, the slowest on-year growth since 2005. 

“Due to the previous administration’s lax fiscal management, the national debts rose by 400 trillion won, and reached over 1,000 trillion won for the first time last year,” Yoon said in opening remarks at the Cabinet meeting. 

Thanks to his administration’s efforts to achieve fiscal soundness, Yoon said the growth of national debts has markedly slowed, and the government will continue to stick to a sound fiscal policy for the sake of external credibility and price stabilization.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

President Yoon gave some blunt advice to some new vice-governmental ministers:

Yoon gave the instruction during lunch with 13 new vice minister-level officials after presenting them with certificates of appointment, according to Lee Do-woon.

“Fight ruthlessly against cartels with vested interests,” Yoon was quoted as saying, repeating a mission he gave to several presidential secretaries last week after they were nominated as vice ministers.

“Our government is an anti-cartel government,” he said. “What topples a democratic society from the outside is totalitarianism and socialism, but what topples it from the inside is corrupt cartels.”

Yoon called on the new vice ministers to be loyal to the spirit of the Constitution, saying both domestic and foreign affairs should be conducted in the spirit of the liberal democratic Constitution.

“Be loyal to the state, the nation and the constitutional system,” he said. “I am not saying you should switch horses, but that you should ride your horses properly in the spirit of the Constitution.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

These systems that send out emergency notifications over text message may be more trouble than they are worth:

These images show mobile phone alerts sent out in the wake of North Korea’s launch of what appeared to be a space launch vehicle on May 31, 2023. (Yonhap)

The Seoul city government on Wednesday erroneously sent out an emergency alert advising citizens to prepare for evacuation after North Korea’s launch of what appeared to be a space launch vehicle.

The mobile phone alert was sent to all Seoul citizens at 6:41 a.m., shortly after the Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired what appeared to be a space launch vehicle. But the interior ministry retracted it at 7:03 a.m., saying the alert was sent by mistake.

“We inform that the alert warning issued by the Seoul Metropolitan City at 6:41 a.m. was an erroneous issuance,” the interior ministry said in a separate mobile phone alert.

A ministry official said that Seoul is not an area where an alert has been issued.

The Seoul city government said it was looking into why the alert was set off.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but at least people in Seoul are so desensitized to North Korean missile launches that they did not go into a mass panic like what happened in 2018 when a similar false text message missile alert was issued in Hawaii.

The opposition party controlled National Assembly has voted to arrest one of President Yoon’s PPP lawmakers. However, when the prosecution asked to indict opposition leader Lee Jae-myung for corruption they voted not to remove his immunity. Unsurprisingly there is a double standard going on here:

The National Assembly on Thursday voted to give parliamentary consent to the prosecution’s request to arrest ruling People Power Party lawmaker Ha Young-je on charges of receiving illicit political funds.

The motion was approved in a 160-99 vote in the National Assembly.

Ha has been under prosecution investigation on suspicion of receiving 70 million won (US$53,602) from a South Gyeongsang provincial council candidate ahead of last June’s local elections.

According to law, sitting lawmakers are immune from arrest while the parliament is in session. The prosecution must obtain parliament’s consent to detain lawmakers.

Yonhap