On the 3rd, the presidential office released a picture of Kim Gun-hee with President Yun Seok-yeol reviewing data from Air Force Unit 1, which departed from Seoul Airport in Seongnam on the 27th of last month, to attend the NATO summit. [사진 = 연합뉴스]“I haven’t seen Kim Gun-hee for over two weeks”
Jang Seong-cheol, director of the Public Opinion Center, a conservative political critic, said in YTN on the 20th, “As President Yoon Seok-yeol’s approval rating is on the decline, many people criticize it, and there is one important change in the president-related issues.”
Director Jang Seong-cheol argued on the 20th that “Mrs. Kun-hee Kim has disappeared in the past two weeks.” “There must have been a political judgment that Mrs. Kim had a significant impact on the president’s approval ratings.” He continued, “When I first criticized Mrs. Kim’s actions, the president didn’t listen, but the more I listened, the more she listened.” “The president is also paying attention to the criticisms of the opposition party and the media’s comments. You will,” he predicted.
Bae Jong-chan, director of Insight K, also cited ‘Gyeonginyang Kimdo’ as the cause of Yoon’s decline in approval ratings. Economics, personnel, polarization, Mrs. Kim, doorstepping Director Bae appeared on KBC Radio that day and said, “You can reduce this burden. If you don’t think it’s going to be radical, you can at least reduce the personnel-related part.”
He added, “It is possible to analyze whether the support rate has rebounded because the political confrontation structure has been reduced a bit, and Mrs. Kim is not even present.”
Mrs. Kim, who has continued her outside activities, from the prevention of the previous first ladies and the gathering of the wives of the ruling party’s senior lawmakers, to the trip to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), has recently been left out of sight. Although the presidential office is wary of over-interpretation, some analysts say that this is also a negative factor for President Yoon’s recent approval ratings.
In addition, the Democratic Party of Korea has recently launched an offensive by mentioning the name of Mrs. Kim in relation to the controversy over ‘private hiring’ in the presidential office. Woo Sang-ho, chairman of the Democratic Party’s emergency countermeasures committee, said in SBS’ ‘Joo Young-jin’s News Briefing’ the day before, “If you listen to the stories of people related to the People’s Power Camp, ‘Mrs. Kim was the best in forming the President’s Office’, ‘Chief of Staff Jang Je-won (then) oversees all the work. He said, “I thought there was a problem with the composition process itself.”
On the 12th, it was reported that President Yoon met his father, Yoon Yoon-jung, an emeritus professor of Yonsei University, at the Yongsan government building, and Mrs. Kim was also present, but this was done on a private schedule. She also said that Ms. Kim had nothing to do with her own fan club president’s political remarks on the same day that she said she “has nothing to do with my will”.
Some analysts say that she started ‘risk management’ as negative public opinion grew due to the controversy over the non-sunship intervention, fan club activities, and the installation of the second annex, although Kim was a hot topic whenever she appeared publicly.
On the other hand, according to the results of a survey conducted by R&Search, a public opinion polling agency, on the 16th to 18th of 1,025 men and women over the age of 18 nationwide (with a response rate of 4.8%) commissioned by Newspim, the approval rate for President Yoon’s state affairs rose slightly. and rebounded in 5 weeks.
On that day, President Yoon’s approval rating was counted at 35.6%. This is an increase of 3.1 percentage points compared to the previous survey, and the negative evaluation decreased by 2.4 percentage points to 61.6%. In most age groups and regions, negative evaluations still outpaced positive evaluations, but positive evaluations in those in their 50s and Daegu and North Gyeongsang increased significantly by 14.4 percentage points and 11.8 percentage points, respectively, compared to the previous survey.
Regarding this, Director Jang said, “The rise is meaningless. I think it is because of a sense of crisis.” “The TK seems to have gathered because they should refrain from criticism in such areas and give support for the first time. It seems difficult to see that it has risen.”
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