As President Yoon Suk Yeol hit the halfway mark of his five-year term Sunday, he faced pressure from a record-low approval rate coupled with growing threats from the opposition to approve a bill mandating a special counsel investigation into the first lady. Yoon's approval rating fell to 17 percent, according to a Gallup Korea poll released Friday, marking an all-time low since the president took office in May 2022. An unnamed official from the local pollster explained the recently surfaced recorded phone call between Yoon and self-proclaimed power broker Myung Tae-kyun worked as a key factor in the respondents’ negative assessment of the president.
The opposition has claimed that the recording proves that Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee inappropriately meddled in the ruling People Power Party’s candidate nomination process for the 2022 parliamentary by-elections. Amid increasing uncertainties surrounding Yoon and his administration in the domains of diplomacy, security and the economy, Yoon has entered a period of lame-duck presidency, with the controversies surrounding his wife heavy on his shoulders, according to a political commentator. “At the moment, Yoon has lost the much needed momentum to manage state affairs – his administration has entered a vegetative state,” commentator Park Sang-byeong said via phone.
“The Yoon administration is overwhelmed by the issue of scandals surrounding first lady Kim Keon Hee. Yoon may need to accept the main opposition’s .