Note: Hankyoreh is a mainstream liberal outlet, kind of a “center left” liberal publication, so take the perspective of the article with a grain of salt.

Anyway, things have been pretty clownish in south Korea’s political sphere since president Yoon (conservative party, “PPP”) came to office earlier this year. I haven’t posted about it since it’s just typical bourgeois nonsense and media circus but as public opinion on Yoon has reached such a low, I thought I would list some of what has been going on to lead to so many protests and public outcry against him.

Polls by Gallup Korea show the president’s approval rating remaining below 30% for five consecutive weeks. (as per the article mentioned in the title)

At 4 pm on Saturday, a coalition of progressive groups called Action for Transition to a Candlelight Victory (Candlelight Action) kicked off a “candlelight march” near City Hall Station in Seoul to call for South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to step down and for a special prosecutor to be named to investigate first lady Kim Keon-hee.

Yoon’s presidency has just been riddled with various blunders and scandals and people have had a low opinion of him from the start. Some have been calling for him to be ousted from the get-go, but more people are dissatisfied with him now. People also want his wife to be investigated because it seems that she plagiarized her dissertation.

This candlelight rally was much bigger than the string of smaller rallies that had come before it. The police estimated that about 15,000 people were taking part by 5 pm — more than double the 7,000 people they had originally expected. The organizers claimed that 300,000-400,000 people showed up.

Noting that conservative counter-protests are also underway, the article says “it’s possible that the focus of politics will shift to street demonstrations. Even so, we must prevent politics from malfunctioning and keep the situation from moving toward an extreme showdown.”

Serious problems of the Yoon government are his conservative policies, for example planning to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and taking a pro-US stance and an aggressive posture toward DPRK through US-ROK-Japan military cooperation.

List of clown activities:

• Not Yoon, but another member of PPP. Shortly after Yoon taking office, there was severe rain and flooding in parts of Seoul, and PPP members went in afterward to assist in the clean up of the flood damage from heavy rains. One of them was caught on camera, standing in the middle of a flood damaged neighborhood, saying, “Honestly I hope it rains a bit, so the pictures come out good”–then was quickly smacked on the arm by someone who seemingly knew he was saying this in front of a camera (Video). Later that day there is footage of the guy sitting miserably in a stairwell as the controversy spread on social media
• “The presidential office used a photo of President Yoon Suk-yeol crouching down to look into a semi-basement flat in Gwanak District, Seoul, to make a promotional image for Yoon on its website and social media. The photo was taken at the site where a family of three, one of whom had a developmental disability, died after getting trapped in the home when it flooded with rainwater … The image read that the president will promptly restore and support the damaged area, thoroughly examine regions where housing is not safe and prepare measures to support safe housing for the vulnerable. Online users bombarded the presidential office’s website and social media comment section for its lack of consideration and exploiting the family’s deaths for promotional content. The post was deleted the following day and the presidential office apologized for its inappropriate actions.” (Same article as above)
• President Yoon was supposed to go to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral but then he got caught in traffic and missed it
• Yoon is perceived as doing “begging diplomacy” with Japan, where he basically begged for a meeting with Japan’s PM to the annoyance of Japanese politicians. He finally got a 30min meeting, which Yoon called an “informal summit” and Japan called a “discussion”
• Yoon was playing up how he was going to have important foreign meetings and have a summit with Biden, but when he showed up to an international event, everyone ignored him, Biden entered the room without greeting him, and they later had a “48 second meeting” (as people are calling it) when they shook hands at the end of the event. After that, Yoon was caught on camera saying, “If those fuckers in Congress don’t pass this, Biden’s going to be so embarrassed” and then he started lying about it, saying he said something else that sounds somewhat similar in the audio, and claimed he was talking about ROK’s congress not the US, and not talking about Biden but something else that sounds similar, and then he started trying to sue media outlets for the “fake news” about this incident while his approval ratings fell below 30%
• The education minister also tried to lower the school entry age to 5 years old, which angered a lot of people, as it was proposed very suddenly and with no regard for children’s development; “groups say the policy is only focused on producing manpower and growing the workforce and are criticizing the Yoon administration for pushing such a policy without any prior public consultation” (Source), “Education minister resigns 34 days into term as Yoon’s approval rating dwindles”: “Park’s ignominious resignation comes 34 days after she was appointed without a confirmation hearing on July 4, despite revelations of drunk driving and allegations of academic plagiarism. In the interim, she faced a heavy backlash over what was widely viewed as a half-baked plan to revise the school system. The Ministry of Education ended up facing a firestorm of public opinion after announcing plans to lower the elementary school admission age by one year to students aged at least 5 years old, along with additional plans to abolish foreign language high schools. The school system revision plan in particular has played a major part in Yoon’s approval rating tumbling below 30%.” (Source)

Anyway, I don’t follow the news about these things super closely, but those are some of examples of the kind of thing behind people’s growing disdain for Yoon’s administration, along with his policies in general and the various contradictions of south Korea’s society.