[1st YEAR in OFFICE] Yoon spends 1st year striving to divide world into friends or foes

President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the 104th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement at Yu Gwan-sun Memorial Hall in downtown Seoul, March 1. Courtesy of presidential office

President opts for right-or-wrong approach than national unity

By Nam Hyun-woo

President Yoon Suk Yeol's first year in office was marked by his struggles to define friends and foes.

Unlike seasoned conventional politicians who instinctively seek gray areas where they can reach a compromise with opponents, Yoon, a career prosecutor, set his sights on sacred principles and embraced those who meet them, while rejecting those who do not. This is something he had been good at throughout his career as a prosecutor and a strength that helped him gain the public's trust and rise to the apex of power as a novice politician.

President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers a speech at his inauguration ceremony at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, May 10, 2022. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-keun

On the domestic front, this was noticeable in his relations with the liberal main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).

To gain a proper grip on managing state affairs, Yoon needs the cooperation of the DPK, which holds more than a majority of the seats in the National Assembly. However, Yoon has been reluctant to extend an olive branch to the opposition, distancing himself from values such as co-governance or cohesion.

In his inauguration address on May 10 last year and speeches on Liberation Day on Aug. 15 or the New Year on Jan. 1, Yoon made no mention of cooperating with the main opposition party or national unity between conservatives and liberals.

"After the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye for her corruption scandal, the previous liberal Moon Jae-in administration promoted the catchphrase of 'draining old swamps,' which ended up distinguishing friends and enemies," said Park Sang-byeong a professor at Inha University's Graduate School of Policy Science.

"Yoon, who was at the forefront of a political group which was defined as the enemy of Moon, became the biggest beneficiary of this framing by becoming the president. Yoon appears to be retaining this right-or-wrong idea after taking the office, rather than seeking national unity as the core-value of his politics."

President Yoon Suk Yeol shakes hands with main opposition Democratic Party of Korea Chairman Rep. Lee Jae-myung during a commemoration ceremony of the 63rd anniversary of the April 19 Revolution in Seoul, April 19. The handshake, however, did not result in a meeting between the former rival presidential candidates. Yonhap

In line with this stance, Yoon is still blaming his predecessor, Moon, as the root cause of "various problems he fixed."

During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, a day before his first anniversary in office, Yoon said, "The previous government's anti-market and abnormal real estate policies" have caused housing market chaos and became "breeding grounds for home rental fraud schemes."

While criticizing the previous administration, Yoon has yet to hold a meeting with DPK Chairman Rep. Lee Jae-myung, who was his main rival in last year's presidential election and is now under investigation for his alleged involvement in a massive land development scandal.

This contrasts starkly with Yoon's predecessors: former President Kim Dae-jung held a meeting with the main opposition party leader two days after his inauguration; former President Roh Moo-hyun had one 15 days after stepping into office; former President Lee Myung-bak took 59 days; former President Park Geun-hye took 46 days; and Moon held a meeting with then main opposition Liberty Korea Party's acting Chairman Chung Woo-taik on the day he took office.

Yoon's office has not clearly revealed why the president is not meeting with the DPK chairman, but it is widely believed that the president has no intention of sitting down with his former rival and releasing messages of cooperation, given the legal suspicions surrounding Lee.

"Yoon is not meeting DPK Chairman Lee because he was accused of serious criminal offenses, and their meeting may give false implications that the president may 'make a deal' with a criminal suspect," Hong Joon-pyo, Daegu mayor who is a conservative heavyweight, wrote on his Facebook, May 3. "It is unlikely that the president has any intention of communicating with the opposition."

Stickers and banners criticizing President Yoon Suk Yeol's hardline stance against labor unions are placed on his sculpture placed in front of Seoul Station during a rally by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Jan. 20. Korea Times photo by Choi Joo-yeon

Last winter, the public witnessed a symbolic moment that showed Yoon's hardline stance against illegal strikes by militant labor unions.

In November, Yoon issued a back-to-work executive order to striking cement truckers, marking the first case in the country's history, and extended the order to truckers of other industries who were staging strikes.

The orders allow the government to revoke the truckers' licenses and impose criminal punishments on those who fail to comply with the orders. While doing so, Yoon said, "Illegalities and violence are prevalent" in labor unions' collective actions and vowed not to compromise with illegal acts.

Yoon's hardline stance contrasted with the viewpoints of his predecessors, who sought to address similar issues through negotiations and compromises.

And this resulted in the truckers' union returning to work 16 days after launching a strike. This resulted in favorable responses from the public and businesses, but at the same time intensified a strife between the government and labor unions. Buoyed by public support, Yoon went on to propose reforms in labor, education and pensions as the national task of his administration and pointed out labor reform as the top priority.

President Yoon Suk Yeol answers questions from reporters on his way to the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Aug. 8, 2022. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon

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Yoon also quarreled with liberal media outlets critical of his policies.

In September, Yoon was mired in a hot mic controversy during his trip to the United States, due to a video footage that caught the president apparently using obscene language while walking away from a brief exchange with U.S. President Joe Biden.

MBC, one of the top three terrestrial broadcasters here, aired it first, predicating that Yoon used foul language against the U.S. president, while his office failed to deny that clearly.

Later, the presidential office banned reporters working for MBC from boarding the presidential jet on the president's overseas trip, with Yoon saying, "It was an inevitable decision in order to serve my responsibility of protecting the Constitution from malicious fake news," during an impromptu interview with reporters on his way to office.

Following Yoon's remark, an MBC reporter yelled at the president, asking him, "What do you think is malicious?" and ended up having a quarrel with a presidential secretary, while Yoon walked away from the interview spot.

This resulted in Yoon suspending the impromptu interview sessions, called door-stepping, and set up a wooden wall at the designated interview spot in the lobby of the presidential office, so that the press could no longer see him going into and out of the building. Since then, Yoon has not held an official press conference with the press, and resorted to live broadcasting or streaming to deliver his remarks to the public.

President Yoon Suk Yeol shakes hands with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden after their joint press conference at the White House, Washington, D.C., April 26 (local time). Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon

Global pivotal state

Yoon's approach of distinguishing between friends and foes was also noticed in steering South Korea's diplomatic direction.

The Yoon administration is now maintaining a tougher position on North Korea, with the president pledging not to compromise with Pyongyang's nuclear and missile threats.

Instead of enticing the Kim Jong-un regime to attend denuclearization talks by offering gestures of rapprochement, Yoon opted to strengthen South Korea's nuclear deterrence by strengthening the military alliance with Washington and dramatically improving Seoul's relations with Tokyo.

Last month, Yoon and Biden signed the Washington Declaration, which is aimed at enhancing U.S. extended deterrence for South Korea by allowing Seoul to have more insight into U.S. nuclear planning and execution to deter North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

Yoon took a proactive stance in his approach to Japan and engaged Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to restore frayed Seoul-Tokyo relations, which plunged to the lowest level due to compensations for South Korean victims of wartime forced labor. The aim was to bolster trilateral security ties involving the U.S. to strengthen deterrence against the North.

In doing so, he proposed a plan to let a South Korean public foundation compensate the victims without the direct involvement of the responsible Japanese firms, but faced criticism at home from opponents accusing him of overlooking the gravity of historical issues.

However, Yoon did not waver and said during a May 7 summit with Kishida, "We should get away from the perception that we cannot take a single step forward toward future cooperation, just because historical issues have not been fully resolved."

Under his diplomatic vision of turning South Korea into "a global pivotal state," Yoon has maintained close ties with the U.S. and supported Washington's stance in global issues, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the rivalry between the U.S. and China.

This is a major shift from South Korea's conventional diplomatic approach of seeking a balance between the world's two superpowers and maintaining good relations with China, which is one of the South's biggest export markets.

As Yoon drops hints at providing military support to Ukraine, criticizes China's claim to Taiwan and allows a stronger U.S. military presence in South Korea, Russia and China have not been discreet about their discontent. China denounced Yoon's remarks on the Taiwan Strait as being "absurd rhetoric," while Russia threatened to provide military support to North Korea if Seoul arms Ukraine.

President Yoon Suk Yeol plants a tree to celebrate the opening of the Children's Garden in front of the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, May 4. Courtesy of presidential office

Approval ratings

It remains to be seen what consequences Yoon's friend-or-foe approach will have on his remaining tenure, but approval ratings so far show that many South Koreans believe his principles are putting the country on the wrong track.

According to pollster Realmeter, Yoon started off his presidency with a 52.1 percent job approval rating, but quickly saw the number plunge due to controversies in naming his Cabinet officials. His approval rating plunged to 31.2 percent in the fourth week of September last year, as the hot mic controversy dominated public attention. In other polling agencies' surveys, the approval rating fell to as low as 24 percent.

Since then, Yoon's approval ratings have been fluctuating between the low 30 to 40 percent levels. It reached 41.1 percent in the third week of December when Yoon took a hardline stance against militant labor unions, but fell again to the 30-percent level in March amid a public backlash over his attempt to mend ties with Japan.

The latest approval rating by Realmeter was 34.6 percent on May 8, up 0.1 percentage point from a week earlier, showing that Yoon is still struggling to gain the public's trust.

President Yoon Suk Yeol walks in an alley in Itaewon in Seoul, Oct. 30, 2022, a day after a crowd crush there killed 159 people enjoying Halloween festivities. Korea Times photo by Koh Young-kwon

"It seems that this is one of the shortcomings of Yoon being a novice politician," Park at Inha University said.

"Since the public has a deep distrust of politicians, it became a plus for Yoon at the presidential office, but the president is still managing state affairs like a prosecutor who is investigating whether a case abides by the laws and rules, while using terms such as justice and anti-intellectualism."