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| From left are Choi Jae-sung, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, Kim Jong-ho, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, and Kim Je-nam, senior presidential secretary for civic and social affairs. / Yonhap |
By Kang Seung-woo
President Moon Jae-in has accepted the resignations of three out of six senior presidential secretaries who offered to step down last week over policy missteps in multiple areas including failed real estate regulations, Cheong Wa Dae announced Monday.
However, the President has retained his chief of staff Noh Young-min, who was under fire for owning multiple homes that went against the government's policy goal of preventing speculative buying and stabilizing the housing market. He also named replacements for the three departing secretaries.
According to Cheong Wa Dae, Choi Jae-sung, a former four-term lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), has been named senior secretary for political affairs, while Kim Jong-ho, secretary-general of the Board of Audit and Inspection, is now Moon's new senior secretary for civil affairs. Kim Je-nam, currently serving as secretary for climate and environment, will be promoted to the senior presidential secretary for civic and social affairs.
The replacements came as public anger over the government's real estate policies was intensifying after it was found that some senior presidential aides owned multiple homes in affluent southern Seoul areas and were reluctant to sell their properties despite the presidential chief of staff's recommendation to do so.
As a result, Moon's approval rating has steadily declined from 59.1 percent to 43.9 percent from the first week of June to the first week of August, according to a survey by Realmeter, Monday. The latest approval rate, 43.9 percent, was down 2.5 percentage points from the previous week, while 52.4 percent were dissatisfied with his performance. This marked the third time the disapproval rating has topped the 50-percent mark since June.
Taking responsibility for the situation, Noh and five senior secretaries offered to quit, Friday.
However, Cheong Wa Dae did not elaborate on why Noh has remained in his post.
"It is difficult to talk about the President's personnel appointment," a Cheong Wa Dae official said.
Such policy missteps have affected the approval rating for the ruling DPK as well. The decline can also partly be blamed on their railroading of controversial real estate bills and botched housing market policies.
In particular, the DPK appears to be in a more critical situation as it has seen its lead in support rate over the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) narrowing to less than 1 percentage point.
According to the Realmeter survey that interviewed 2,520 people aged 18 or older last week, 35.1 percent of respondents supported the DPK, down 3.2 percentage points from the previous week. The UFP's approval rating advanced 2.9 percentage points to 34.6 percent ― the highest since the renaming of the main opposition party in February.
The finding carries extra weight for the conservative party as the gap in the approval rating between the rival parties recorded the smallest-ever margin of 0.5 percentage points.
What is more unnerving for the DPK, which won 176 out of 300 National Assembly seats in April's general election, is the UFP's rating briefly shot above that of the DPK ― 36 percent to 34.3 percent ― Wednesday when Cheong Wa Dae, the government and the ruling party announced another real estate-related plan in a series of controversial laws that aimed to protect tenants but then backfired.
Some Korean tenants generally prefer jeonse, a long-term deposit rental system unique to Korea where a large deposit is paid instead of rent, which is returned to them at the end of their lease. However, the new laws, rammed through by the DPK, are raising concerns that excessive protection of jeonse tenants may prod landlords to switch to monthly rent, tolling the death knell for the jeonse system.
The local pollster said the DPK's declining rating was because its key supporters ― women and voters in their 30s and 40s ― broke away from the party due to their discontent with the government's real estate policies. The approval rating among women dropped by 3.9 percentage points, while that from people in their 30s and 40s fell by 6.1 percentage points and 7.9 percentage points, respectively.
The UFP saw its approval rating increasing by 6 percentage points in the Jeolla provinces ― bastions of support for the DPK. In addition, Rep. Yun Hee-suk's floor speech late last month that denounced the government's real estate policy also positively affected the UFP's approval rating, Realmeter added.
However, some say the UFP's rise is benefitting from the DPK's policy missteps as the opposition party has yet to reform itself after a series of defeats in the presidential, general and local elections.
Later in Monday, President Moon said his administration is reviewing the establishment of an organization to oversee the property market, which seen as a determination to focus on curbing soaring housing prices in the second half of his term.
"The housing issue is the most urgent matter that the government is facing," Moon said during a meeting with senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae.
