Moon's election pledges causing division

President Moon Jae-in/ Yonhap

Support rate for President lowest ever

By Do Je-hae

President Moon Jae-in started off the fourth year of his term in office with a focus on achieving “outcomes” on his campaign pledges that prioritized values such as social justice, balanced national development and improvement in the people's livelihoods.

But in the last month of the year, Moon finds himself far from his resolve to do this, but rather faces a grave political impasse from polarization over some of his signature pledges, such as reforming the prosecution to promote transparency in its investigations and guaranteeing its independence from politics.

In particular, Moon has shown resolute commitment to seeing real progress in prosecutorial reform, which was also a core policy issue during the liberal Roh Moo-hyun administration in which Moon served as a key aide. But Moon's successive choices for justice minister, including former presidential secretary for civil affairs Cho Kuk, and five-term lawmaker Choo Mi-ae, have been blamed for causing social division with their unilateral push for reform which has instigated a huge backlash from prosecutors and the legal community.

Choo's recent drive to open disciplinary proceedings against Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl is largely seen as a way to oust Yoon, who has initiated investigations into sensitive issues for the Moon administration, such as the trade, industry and energy ministry's alleged manipulation in the decision to close the Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant 1 reactor early in order to support and justify President Moon's controversial nuclear phase-out policy.

There are signals that show the Choo-Yoon conflict is starting to cause real damage for Moon. On Thursday, a survey showed that public support for the President had plummeted to under 40 percent for the first time. The Realmeter survey showed a record low 37.4 percent approval rating for Moon, a 6.4 percentage points drop from the previous week, while support for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) also plummeted to 28.9 percent, a record low since the launch of the current administration in 2017.

The rival parties have also been in conflict for months over the launch of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials, another pledge of Moon. The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) has claimed it was against the Constitution while the DPK is threatening to revise a relevant law so it can push ahead with the launch process on its own.

Another issue causing a public divide was Moon's pledge to revitalize the regional economy with the construction of a new airport in the southeastern part of the country. The government recently scrapped the previous administration's decision to expand the current Gimhae International Airport, virtually opening the way to build a new one in Busan and at the same time causing a backlash from people of Daegu who wanted an airport in their region.

President Moon has been increasingly criticized for remaining silent on these issues that have caused public uproar, which critics see as evading responsibility.

He is now being compared to his predecessor and ousted former President Park Geun-hye, who was notorious for her lack of communication with the public. Moon has held only two press conferences this year and has refused to meet with the PPP interim leader Kim Chong-in. “The Moon government is looking more like the Park administration rather than that of Roh Moo-hyun. Moon has refused to speak about the primary issues concerning his administration,” said Jeju Governor Woo Hee-ryong.