Here is the latest of President Moon’s approval rating:
Realmeter polling company said Monday that 50.7 percent of the people it surveyed said they disapprove of Moon’s performance, up 1.6 percentage points from the previous week. The poll was conducted from Tuesday till Friday last week at the request of YTN.
Moon’s approval rating was 46.1 percent in the fourth week of February, down by 1.3 percentage points from the third week of February, according to the poll. The gap between the approval rating and disapproval rating was 4.6 percentage points, which went up higher than the margin of error for the first time in four weeks.
In Daegu and North Gyeongsang, where infections are skyrocketing day by day, Moon’s approval rating was 30.1 percent, while his disapproval rating was 65 percent. “The coronavirus outbreak will become the most critical factor in the politics in the coming weeks,” Realmeter said.
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link.
This is going to go no where considering President Moon’s political party controls the legislature:
The National Assembly said Monday lawmakers will formally consider a public petition demanding President Moon Jae-in’s impeachment.
According to the National Assembly Secretariat, a petition was submitted on Friday to the legislature’s online bulletin board, demanding that the National Assembly impeach Moon for his failed response to protect the people’s lives from the deadly coronavirus outbreak. The petition received over 100,000 signatures from the public in just four days and was created by someone surnamed Han.
“The more I see Moon’s response to the latest Wuhan pneumonia crisis, the more I see a president of China, not Korea,” Han wrote, criticizing the administration for the shortage of face masks and its decision to not impose a full entry ban on all travelers from China. “As the president, his top priority should have been protecting the country’s own people. If he had truly cared about the people, he should have imposed an entry ban on travelers from all regions of China.
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link, but this issue does make me wonder if this will be the next thing that Washington Democrats will try to impeach President Trump for?
Here is the latest on the coronavirus spread in South Korea:
South Korea’s new coronavirus caseload approached 5,200 on Tuesday, with an alarming cluster of infections continuing to swell in the southeastern city of Daegu. President Moon Jae-in declared a “war” on the fast-spreading virus.
The 374 new cases, which were identified over the past 16 hours on Tuesday, brought the nation’s total number of infections to 5,186, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.
Tuesday’s additional cases followed 600 new cases on Monday and the nation’s sharpest daily spikes of 1,062 on Sunday and 813 on Saturday.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Ambassador Harris continues to upset the Moon administration, but what did he say was inaccurate?:
The office of President Moon Jae-in openly reproached U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris for his remark on Moon’s stated plans to resume inter-Korean cooperation, calling it “very inappropriate.”
“It’s very inappropriate for the ambassador to make such a mention for media over remarks by the president of the hosting nation,” a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters.
The official stressed that inter-Korean cooperation is a matter to be decided by the South Korean government, although Seoul is “always” in close consultation with Washington in making constant efforts for substantive progress in inter-Korean ties and the early resumption of dialogue between the United States and North Korea.
A spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy declined to comment directly on the presidential aide’s remarks.
“We are aware of the comment,” he told Yonhap News Agency. “We have nothing to offer at this time, and would refer you to Ambassador Harris’ recent public comments.”
Harris reportedly urged Seoul to hold prior consultations with Washington in its pursuit of allowing its nationals to make “individual” tours of Mount Kumgang on North Korea’s east coast.
It’s “better” to run such an issue “through the working group” to avoid “misunderstandings” that might trigger sanctions, he reportedly told a group of foreign reporters here, referring to a working-level consultation channel between the allies on North Korea affairs.
His remarks were viewed by many as a thinly veiled warning and an attempt to put pressure on the Moon administration as it seeks to jump-start inter-Korean projects that are unaffected by U.N. sanctions on the communist neighbor in a bid to help facilitate Pyongyang-Washington nuclear talks.
Yonhap
Essentially all Ambassador Harris is telling them is that before they attempt to do any projects with North Korea they better work it through the U.S. or face violating sanctions. It is pretty clear what the Moon administration is trying to do is find a way to get around the North Korean sanctions and Ambassador Harris is calling them out on it publicly.
It will be interesting to see if the Trump administration responds to President Moon’s advocacy for South Korea to break international sanctions on the North:
President Moon Jae-in stressed the need Tuesday to expand inter-Korean cooperation, saying it could be conducive to drumming up international support for sanctions relief for the communist neighbor.
Speaking at his New Year’s press conference, he made it clear that South Korea will not sit idle waiting for Pyongyang-Washington dialogue to bear fruit.
“If (we) broaden cooperative ties between South and North to the maximum, it would not only facilitate North Korea-U.S. dialogue but also help win international support in connection with some exemptions or exceptions to sanctions on North Korea,” the president said.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but the term “inter-Korean cooperation” is code for restarting the Kaesong Industrial Park and Gumgang Resort tours which were both cash cows for the Kim regime. Essentially what President Moon is advocating for is continuing to fund the North Korean military machine with no reciprocal denuclearization agreement in place. Agreements like this is what allowed North Korea to become a nuclear menace in the first place and Moon wants double down on this policy.
