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President Yoon Suk-yeol enters a meeting room at the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Friday, for a ceremony to credentials from newly appointed ambassadors to Korea. Yonhap

'Silent vacation' necessary for rebound, experts said

By Nam Hyun-woo

Starting today, President Yoon Suk-yeol will take a weeklong leave of absence, which will be a time for him to keep a distance from state affairs and consider how to resuscitate his sharply declining approval rating.

According to the presidential office, Yoon will take leave until Friday. The office did not specify where Yoon will spend his vacation, citing security reasons, but he will be outside Seoul for two to three days and will visit places relevant to the livelihoods of the general public.

The vacation comes as a precious break for Yoon, who has been bleeding support amid quickly spreading negative sentiment on his administration.

According to a Gallup Korea poll released on Friday, Yoon's job approval rating stood at 28 percent, with 62 percent showing negative sentiments on the administration. The poll surveyed 1,000 adults from July 26 to 28 and further details are available at the websites of the polling agency and the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.

It was the first time that Yoon's approval fell below 30 percent, down four percentage points from a week earlier when the number had remained flat for two straight weeks ― the second and third week of July.


Yoon is bleeding his support faster than his predecessors. His predecessor, Moon Jae-in, saw his job approval rating falling below 30 percent for the first time in the fifth week of April, 2021, a year before the end of his five-year term. The approval rating of Park Geun-hye, Moon's predecessor, dived below 30 percent in January 2015, the second year of her presidency.