Tag: Moon Jae-in

President Moon’s approval rating continues drop despite near complete control of the government, media, and the ability to silence to critics through legal action:

President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating dropped below 50 percent for the first time since he took office in May 2017, the latest Realmeter presidential poll showed Thursday.

Moon’s approval rating hit 48.8 percent in its ninth straight week of decline.

Analysts blamed the decline on Korea’s stagnating economy and Moon’s preoccupation with inter-Korean relations. Denuclearization talks with the North have stalled recently.

The approval rating of the ruling Democratic Party also dipped to 37.6 percent in the same Realmeter poll, 1.6 percentage points lower than the previous survey. It also declined for the past nine weeks.

In contrast, the main opposition Liberty Korea Party reached its highest popularity rating since the infamous Choi Soon-sil scandal broke out in October 2016, which led to former President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment.

The party had an approval rating of 26.2 percent in the latest poll, 3.3 percentage points higher than the previous survey and the highest since the third week of October 2016, when it was 29.6 percent.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Another week and yet another new low approval rating for President Moon:

President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating dropped to 52.5 percent, the lowest level since taking power in May 2017, affected by a stagnating economy with no signs of an immediate rebound and stalled talks on North Korea’s denuclearization.

In a poll by Realmeter of 1,505 adults nationwide from Monday through Wednesday, Moon’s popularity dropped 1.2 percent points to 52.5 percent in an eighth straight week of declines. The previous lowest point was 53.1 percent polled in the second week of September, right before his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang.

Approval hovering just above the 50 percent mark is a stark contrast to earlier this year when they surged to around 80 percent on hopes for a breakthrough with North Korea, which contributed to a sweeping victory in local elections in June.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

It seems like the Trump administration is going to keep playing along with the so called peace process by smiling for photo ops and saying the right things.  However, so far it appears they will not drop sanctions until North Korea does something to show they are serious about denuclearization.  At some point this will come to a crisis and it seems the Trump administration wants the Kim regime to be the ones blamed for starting the crisis:

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence asked South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday to communicate and talk more closely with North Korea, Moon’s spokesman said.

The remark, made during a meeting with Moon in Singapore on the sidelines of regional summits, is seen as a call for Moon to play greater roles so that upcoming talks between the U.S. and the North, including a second summit, will be able make progress.

Pence was quoted as telling reporters after the meeting with Moon at the Suntec convention center that U.S. President Donald Trump plans to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un next year and that the two sides are discussing details.

“My understanding is that (Pence) made a request to Moon separately even as talks are under way between the North and the U.S.,” the South’s presidential spokesman, Kim Eui-kyeom, told reporters.

Moon agreed to play active roles while closely communicating with both sides, Kim said.

Kim said that there was no mention of sanctions during the meeting.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

It seems like President Moon is in a race to get sanctions dropped, a peace treaty signed, and loads of free cash to North Korea before his approval ratings drop so low he politically cannot move forward with his agenda:

President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating has dropped for the seventh consecutive week.

According to a new Real Meter survey of one-thousand-500 adults nationwide conducted between Monday and Wednesday, 53-point-eight percent of respondents answered that the president is doing a good job, down one-point-six percentage points from last week.

Over 39 percent of respondents had negative assessments about Moon’s performance, up one-point-one percentage points.

Real Meter attributed the falling approval rating to public concerns about the economy fanned by news of worsening economic indicators and the government’s failing economic policies.   [KBS Global]

You can read more at the link.

If Putin wants reciprocal measures how about he tell Kim Jong-un to start shipping out nuclear material from North Korea?  Whenever the apologists talk about reciprocal measures they always demand that the US drop sanctions for little to nothing in return from North Korea:

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, talked about easing sanctions on North Korea in their talks Wednesday on the sidelines of a regional summit in Singapore, Moon’s office said.

Moon requested Moscow’s active role in efforts to persuade Pyongyang to take denuclearization steps in a “bolder manner,” according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom.

They had “comprehensive” discussions on the terms and conditions of easing sanctions on the North, he added.

In the 58-minute meeting, Putin was quoted as telling Moon that there should be reciprocal measures if there is progress in denuclearization.

The meeting, their fourth since Moon took office last year, came days after high-level denuclearization negotiations between the United States and the North were abruptly called off last week.

In Wednesday’s meeting, Moon and Putin were expected to discuss ways to get the denuclearization talks restarted at an early date, as well as measures to further strengthen relations between the two countries.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This October 2018 file photo shows President Moon Jae-in patting a female dog named Gomi, one of the two Pungsan-breed dogs given to Moon by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after their third summit in Pyongyang in September. Moon said in a Twitter message on Nov. 12, 2018, that Gomi gave birth to six white puppies — three male and three female — on Nov. 9 and all look healthy. (Yonhap)

#MoonJaein working hard for #KimJongun again. Said "I'd appreciate the National Assembly issuing a statement welcoming chairman Kim." Also want Kim to address the Natl Assembly. Meanwhile, he shirks his presidential duties, like meeting foreign leaders.https://t.co/VRrBKysJM0

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) November 6, 2018

South Korean President Moon Jae-in poses for a photo while wearing a “Modi jacket,” which he has received from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at his office in Seoul on Oct. 31, 2018, in this photo provided by the presidential office. (Yonhap)

How about he instead take Kim Jong-un to the memorial for the sailors killed in the Cheonan sinking:

President Moon Jae-in said Sunday that he could give North Korea’s Kim Jong-un a tour of Mount Halla, South Korea’s tallest mountain, on the southern island of Jeju, if the leader comes for a visit.

Moon made the remarks in response to a reporter’s question about what he would show Kim should the communist leader reciprocate his own visit to Pyongyang last month for the third inter-Korean summit aimed at fostering inter-Korean rapprochement and cooperation.

“As we have an expression like ‘from Mount Paekdu to Mount Halla,’ I could give him a tour of Mount Halla if (he) wants,” Moon said during talks with reporters after climbing up to a peak of Mount Bukak just behind the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

It looks like President Moon’s attempt to lobby European governments to drop North Korean sanctions is not working:

President Moon Jae-in has told French President Emmanuel Macron that North Korea’s denuclearization needs to be stimulated further by easing UN sanctions if the North’s measures to scrap its nuclear program are believed to have reached an irreversible level.

But North Korea has not remotely reached a point where denuclearization is irreversible. It has not even started. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un flatly refused to give the U.S. even a partial inventory of its nuclear facilities and stockpiles when visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pleaded with him, and instead demanded that the U.S. officially declare an end to the Korean War to “build trust.”

The first step to denuclearization must be reporting all nuclear facilities and fissile materials, because how else will anyone know whether North Korea is scrapping anything? This is a no-brainer. Yet the North is vehemently protesting before taking even the first step, claiming that the demand is tantamount to “mafia-like tactics.”

Yet the South Korean president labors under the delusion that North Korea’s denuclearization has progressed significantly. During his summit last month with U.S. President Donald Trump, Moon even said the North’s denuclearization had almost reached an “irreversible” level already. U.S. nuclear experts, by contrast, say Pyongyang’s gestures so far — dismantling a moribund nuclear test site in Punggye-ri and a static missile launch pad it no longer needs — do not qualify as denuclearization at all.

Moon hopes that North Korea’s denuclearization can reach an irreversible level in a few months and is going around the world asking global leaders to stimulate the process by easing sanctions. Macron quite rightly brushed him off, saying sanctions must continue until “concrete denuclearization steps are taken.”  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.