| President Yoon Suk-yeol waves to the audience during his inauguration ceremony at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap |
It remains to be seen how Yoon will break domestic deadlock to get things done
By Nam Hyun-woo
A tough road lies ahead for President Yoon Suk-yeol, who is set to clash over practically every issue with the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) that controls 171 seats out of the 300-member National Assembly.
The ongoing confirmation hearings of Yoon's picks for Cabinet minister nominees show clearly that there is no honeymoon for the new, conservative government. The DPK is demanding that several Cabinet ministers, including Justice Minister nominee Han Dong-hoon, quit, saying they are unqualified or unethical for the jobs.
Yoon is already facing difficulties in appointing his prime minister.
The prime minister needs to get the nod from the National Assembly to take the helm, but the president is free to appoint his other picks once confirmation hearings are over.
But Yoon's possible unilateral action to appoint his Cabinet minister picks would backfire as the DPK won't just sit back and watch if he does that. The main opposition party has warned that it will file complaints with the prosecution against Land and Transport Minister nominee Won Hee-ryong and Health and Welfare Minister nominee Chung Ho-young for a number of suspicions that they are facing.
This is expected to result in a head-on collision between the DPK and the ruling People Power Party (PPP) over other state affairs in the coming months, such as organizing a supplementary budget and naming the heads of the Assembly's committees.
| The National Assembly is seen before hosting President Yoon Suk-yeol's inauguration ceremony, Tuesday. Yonhap |
Against this backdrop, pundits said Yoon will likely face difficulties in living up to his commitments in several policy areas. Among them is his signature campaign pledge to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which requires the passage of a revision to the Government Organization Act.
Last month, Ahn Cheol-soo, who served as chairman of the now defunct presidential transition committee, said it "will not rush into decisions on restructuring the government."
As long as the parliament is controlled by the DPK, Yoon has no other option but to convince them to get what he wants. Or he has to wait for two years until the next National Assembly election to elect new parliamentary members to get things done.
Due to this, the transition committee selected relatively easier tasks as the Yoon government's assignments for the next five years, triggering criticism that big national agendas are allegedly missing in the new administration's roadmap. And Yoon was also criticized for backpedaling from his bold election pledges after the transition committee dropped some of those pledges from the new government's policy roadmaps.
| Kites urging people to vote in the June 1 local elections fly above a park in Sejong, May 5. Yonhap |
The upcoming June 1 local elections are a litmus test for the new president. A PPP victory in the elections to select governors and mayors of local provincial governments could translate into public support for the new government. But the parliamentary deadlock won't be resolved.
Since Yoon won the presidential election with a razor-thin margin of 0.75 percentage point over DPK presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, the main opposition party believes it has a fair chance of clinching victories in the upcoming local elections, gearing up political offensives to dent Yoon's early presidency and the ruling PPP.
If the PPP loses in the local elections, Yoon may lose his political momentum early in his presidency. According to a survey by Realmeter, Monday, Yoon's jobs approval rating stood at 51.4 percent, up 1.7 percentage points from a week earlier. Yoon's predecessor Moon Jae-in started his presidency with an 84.1 percent approval rating.
"The first few months will likely be a dilemma for Yoon," an official at the conservative bloc said. "With the main opposition party holding the majority in the Assembly, it is difficult for Yoon to carry on unilaterally with his political drive. To overcome challenges in his early presidency, Yoon should adopt a give-and-take stance and show his negotiating ability to cooperate with the DPK."
The Realmeter poll surveyed 2,014 adults from May 2 to 6. Further details of the survey are available at the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.