Cho Kuk, center, the leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party, watches the exit poll results after the general elections at the National Assembly in Seoul, April 10. Yonhap

Rebuilding Korea Party leader Cho Kuk said Wednesday that President Yoon Suk Yeol does not understand that he himself is the real problem behind the ruling party's crushing election defeat, a day after Yoon issued his first statement on the election results.

In Tuesday's statement, Yoon said he humbly accepts the public sentiment revealed in last week's elections and promised to work harder to improve communication with the people. He also issued an apology, albeit through an aide, saying he failed to uphold the will of the people.

But Yoon also argued that he is taking the country in the right direction, though his policy has yet to bring about palpable changes, and kept his commitment to push ahead with key policy agendas, including a plan to boost medical school admission quotas.

"Even after the crushing defeat in the general elections, the president is still not aware that he himself is the root cause of all problems," Cho said during a YouTube news show. "It truly makes no sense for him to say that he set the right direction for state affairs ... but ministers and public servants did a bad job or the people failed to understand it."

Cho also said, "Stupid, it's you," parodying the famous 1992 U.S. election slogan, "It's the economy, stupid," of former U.S. President Bill Clinton's campaign.

"I think a few critical incidents will be happening and there will come a moment where he has to apologize in a shameful manner," Cho said.

Cho, a former justice minister who fell into disgrace following an investigation into academic fraud involving his children when President Yoon was prosecutor-general, launched the party just about a month before the April 10 parliamentary elections.

After campaigning with calls for bringing an early end to the Yoon administration, Cho's party won 12 proportional representation seats to become the third-largest party in the incoming National Assembly. (Yonhap)