Do Je-hae edits news stories as part of the AI team.
Virus tests Moon's leadership ahead of April election
President Moon Jae-in speaks during a meeting at Cheong Wa Dae on Jan. 31. Yonhap
By Do Je-hae
By Do Je-hae
President Moon Jae-in is exerting all-out efforts to ease mounting public concern over the spread of the new coronavirus.
Moon presided over a meeting with quarantine experts Sunday morning, according to Cheong Wa Dae. The meeting was arranged urgently to discuss ways to contain the spread of the virus after Korean residents of Wuhan, China, were evacuated from the epicenter of the virus on chartered planes and brought to Korea last week. Most have been quarantined in government-run facilities.
The virus has quickly emerged as a key test of the Moon administration’s crisis management capacity. Failure to properly deal with the virus could dent the public’s trust.
Ahead of the April 15 general election, Cheong Wa Dae is moving to assure the public that the government is on top of the situation. Moon has been initiating related meetings regarding the response to the coronavirus since its outbreak, including one on Jan. 27, the final day of the Lunar New Year holidays.
“Cheong Wa Dae is the control tower for disaster and public safety,” a presidential aide told reporters last week.
The emphasis on “control tower” is seen as the presidential office’s attempt to avoid facing the high level of public indignation toward the government during a time of crisis.
Mindful of the Sewol disaster that led to the downfall of his predecessor Park Geun-hye, Moon has repeatedly stressed the role of the government in public safety.
“There can be no compromise in the safety of the people. We need to be prepared for every situation, and we need to do everything we need to do. We need strong preemptive measures. The central and local governments should increase their response to prevent secondary infections,” Moon said during a meeting last week.
But the virus has already started to show some negative impact on public sentiment toward the Moon administration and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). The latest survey on Jan. 31 said Moon’s job approval rating had fallen to 41 percent. Support for the DPK had decreased to 34 percent, down 4 percentage points from the previous week.
On Sunday, the government announced measures to limit the entry of all foreigners who had visited Hubei Province, China, in the past 14 days, effective Tuesday.
It is similar to measures that have been imposed by countries such as the U.S. and Japan. The announcement came even after Beijing expressed concerns about entry bans, reflecting Seoul’s commitment to containing the spread of the virus. “Just as the WHO recommended against travel restrictions, the U.S. rushed to go in the opposite way,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said on Jan. 31.
“Certainly not a gesture of goodwill.”