President Yoon Suk-yeol answers reporters' questions on his way to the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Monday. Joint Press Corps

By Nam Hyun-woo

President Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating is in a downward trajectory similar to that of former President Lee Myung-bak, who saw his support rate nosedive in the early stage of his presidency amid global financial difficulties coupled with sharp inflation.

Lee managed to bounce back from approval ratings below 20 percent by using tough measures such as replacing his aides, hiring figures from the opposition bloc and revising his economic policy direction to moderate pragmatism from neoliberalism. Experts said Yoon may want to follow the Lee administration's example to find a breakthrough in his sluggish approval rating.

According to a Realmeter survey released Monday, Yoon's job approval rating stood at 33.3 percent in the third week of July, down 0.1 of a percentage point from a week earlier. The poll surveyed 2,527 adults from July 18 to 22; further details are available on the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission's website.

The president's approval rating has been mired in a steep downward spiral, dropping from 52.1 percent in the first week of June to 33.4 percent in the second week of this month, due largely to controversies over the choices made when appointing his aides and increasing financial volatility as well as continuing inflationary pressure.


Yoon's trajectory is similar to former President Lee's approval rating early in his 2008-13 presidency.

According to Gallup Korea, Lee started his presidency in February 2008 with an average 52 percent support rate from February to May. However, this quickly plunged to 21 percent at the end of May, with respondents giving negative responses citing inflation and the Lee government's failure to gather the public's opinion on state affairs.


On June 5, two days after Lee commemorated his first 100 days in office, a CBS-Realmeter survey showed Lee's approval rating stood at 16.9 percent.

At the time, the Lee administration was plagued by public resistance to the government's negotiations to revise the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which involved the resumption of U.S. beef imports. Public sentiment was aggravated further after the government used water cannons to disperse protesters, and Lee ended up issuing an official apology with a pledge to replace presidential aides and some Cabinet members.

Then President Lee Myung-bak announces his statement in regard to public concerns and protests over importing U.S. beef during a press conference at Cheong Wa Dae, the former presidential office in Jongno District, Seoul, in this May 22, 2008, file photo. Korea Times file

Following the apology, Lee replaced his chief of staff and seven senior secretaries and scaled down a number of policies unpopular with the public, such as his campaign pledge for The Grand Korean Waterway, which was downsized to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project.

This was coupled with Lee's fast economic policy redirection from market-oriented neoliberalism to a more moderate pragmatism focusing on people's livelihood. His approval rating managed to rise to nearly 50 percent in 2010.

The early days of the Lee administration appear to have a lot of similarities with Yoon's first few months.

Yoon is now facing economic difficulties stemming from steep inflation, a weak won value against the dollar and interest rate hikes.

To overcome them, Yoon is relying on market-oriented economic policies such as deregulation and small government, which Lee resorted to before his approval rating started to plunge. Many of Yoon's aides also worked at the presidential office during the Lee administration.

Currently, it appears that Yoon managed to prevent his approval rating from dropping below 30 percent by making greater efforts in refining his messages and encouraging his aides and ministers to be more active in promoting government policies to the public. But experts said a critical measure is required for Yoon to prevent further drops, as Lee did.

"The top priority is a sweeping overhaul in the presidential office," political commentator Rhee Jong-hoon said. "If the president makes a bad decision, aides should be able to comment to fix that. However, in the Yoon administration, there is no presence of a presidential chief of staff or other aides, with Yoon himself alone struggling with the critical sentiment."

Rhee continued that Yoon's economic policies amid the current economic situation are bound to be unpopular, and presidential secretaries should be able to take public criticisms instead of the president, to provide Yoon further momentum to address state affairs.

"Unlike the Lee administration, the Yoon administration is not experiencing public protests on a certain matter, but this does not necessarily mean that the public is seeing that Yoon is doing OK," Rhee said. "There is a necessity for Yoon to make a pre-emptive response on his faltering job approval rating by making sweeping reforms at the presidential office."