| President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a meeting with family members of sailors who died on the Cheonan battleship that sank in 2010, at the presidential office in Seoul's Yongsan District, Thursday. Yonhap |
Seoul-Washington summit commended; economy, North Korea, political rift still unresolved
By Ko Dong-hwan
One month has passed since Yoon Suk-yeol was inaugurated as the country's president and there is already a number of achievements and significant political footsteps observers have used to assess his fledging administration.
The overall evaluation is that there have been some definite achievements, while Yoon still faces monumental tasks.
The president did not get off a smooth start after beating his rival, Lee Jae-myung, by a razor-thin margin in the presidential election in March, with some 48 percent of over 34 million voters choosing Lee over Yoon. The country remained clearly divided between supporters of the two major parties ― the now-ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) as seen in the country's local elections on June 1, where the PPP candidates won a majority of the posts.
In addition to the clear domestic rift, the geopolitical environment also remains unstable, as South Korea's relations with North Korea, the United States, China and Japan face challenges due to conflicting interests. Yoon needs to play a delicate balancing act, which is easier said than done for the former prosecutor general who is a neophyte in both diplomatic and political problem solving.
One of Yoon's achievements so far is relocating his office from Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul's Jongno District to the Ministry of National Defense in the Yongsan District further south. Despite criticism from the DPK, he overturned his pledge to move the presidential office to Gwanghwamun and instead forced the defense ministry out of its building so that his office could move in there. But the relocation process has almost been completed without much trouble.
There were concerns that Yoon's hurried relocation plan as well as his adamant intention not to use the emergency control center at a bunker beneath Cheong Wa Dae might cause a vacuum in national security. But such concerns appear to have been exaggerated so far.
| President Yoon Suk-yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden toast each other during an official banquet following their summit at the National Museum of Korea, May 21. Courtesy of President Yoon's office |
Yoon held a successful summit with U.S. President Joe Biden at his new office last month, just 11 days after his inauguration. The summit solidified a bilateral commitment to a stronger military alliance against North Korea as well as an economic partnership backed by Samsung Electronics' deal to build more factories in the U.S. and South Korea joining the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework ― which was launched by Biden to form a global economic alliance against China's growing influence.
The National Assembly's approval of a 62 trillion won ($49.3 billion) supplementary budget, which eventually allocated 6 million won to 10 million won to some 3.71 million small business owners, is also considered one of Yoon's key achievements so far, as he pushed the Cabinet to approve it two days after his inauguration. He even visited the National Assembly to urge lawmakers to pass the motion. It was ratified on May 29, just 20 days into his administration, realizing the “No.1 pledge” he made as a presidential candidate.
Promoting mostly former prosecutors with personal connections to key government posts under his administration, however, is one of the biggest causes of criticism facing the president. The list includes top-level positions at presidential secretary offices, government ministries and agencies. The president, however, defended his actions, saying many figures with government attorney experience play important roles in various branches of governments in other advanced countries such as the United States.
Inflation is another major problem facing his administration. Yoon urged his aides during his first meeting with presidential secretaries a day after the inauguration to stabilize consumer prices. But consumer price growth reached 5.4 percent by the end of May, the highest in 14 years.
| South Korea fires eight ATACMS missiles into the East Sea on June 6 in response to North Korea's launch of eight missiles the previous day. Courtesy of ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff |
North Korea's impending nuclear test ― the first since 2017 ― is also an obstacle for Yoon, who has been provoking Pyongyang by arguing for sturdy military readiness against the North since his presidential campaign.
How he will manage his relationship with the DPK lawmakers also remains a big task, as the main opposition party has been challenging the president and the ruling party over various political issues, including which side will chair the National Assembly's 20 standing and special committees.
It also remains a daunting task for Yoon to weigh carefully Seoul's geopolitical stance towards the United States and China, as the two rival countries are important allies of South Korea in both economic and diplomatic terms. Chilled relations with Japan is also a huge task that Yoon needs to solve, as the two neighboring countries have been locking horns over various issues for decades, most recently over how to compensate Korean victims of wartime sex slavery by Japan during World War II.
“Yoon must tackle the economy, North Korea and political unity in a divided country as his foremost tasks,” Bae Jong-chan, director of Insight K Research Institute, told The Korea Times. “The PPP's political victory in the presidential and local elections may have brought Yoon an advantage in national statecraft, but it's no time for the party to bask under limelight as the DPK still dominates the National Assembly seats. Besides, the local elections' result, in a sense, has deepened the political rift nationwide, making political unification more important than anything else right now.”
Gallup Korea's survey on June 2 showed that 53 percent of respondents gave a positive overall review of Yoon's governance so far, while 34 percent gave a negative review. Bae compared Yoon's support rate to that of previous presidents during the beginning of their administrations when they mostly attracted 70-80 percent support ratings.
“Yoon's presidential race against Lee was neck-and-neck so it would have been difficult for Yoon to draw overwhelming supports from the public at this time,” Bae said. “His popularity now depends on how Yoon will tackle the impending problems at this point when one month has gone by.”