President Yoon Suk-yeol answers reporters' questions as he enters his office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Friday. The office said Monday that the brief interview sessions will be suspended temporarily due to the spread of COVID-19. Yonhap

Opposition says citing COVID to skip president's morning ritual is 'poor excuse'

By Nam Hyun-woo

The presidential office said Monday it will temporarily suspend President Yoon Suk-yeol's brief interview sessions ― on his way to work ― as cases of COVID-19 were increasing among reporters covering the top office amid a resurgence of the pandemic in Korea.

"The presidential office is not separated from the press room," the office said in a statement announcing that impromptu interviews will be halted for an undetermined period.

Yoon has allowed reporters to doorstep him on his way to the presidential office almost every day, using them as opportunities to express his views on state affairs. The president himself and his aides have been promoting the practice as the administration's conscious effort to live up to its commitment to interact with the press and the public more.

A key official at the presidential office cited the rapid increase in the number of confirmed cases among reporters as the main reason behind the latest decision.

At least eight out of nearly 300 reporters frequenting the presidential office's press room have tested positive for the coronavirus since last week, and more than 20 reporters have reported that they had close contact with COVID-19 patients.

Korea is now feared to be facing a new wave of COVID-19 infections amid the fast spread of the BA.5 subvariant. On Monday, Korea added 20,410 new cases, up from 6,249 a week earlier.

President Yoon Suk-yeol shakes hands with new Financial Services Commission Chairman Kim Joo-hyun at the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of presidential office

The suspension also came as Yoon was anticipated to face tough questions on various state matters.

On Monday, Yoon appointed Kim Joo-hyun as chairman of the Financial Services Commission, without undergoing a confirmation hearing at the National Assembly. It was the fourth time that Yoon appointed a minister-level official without an assembly hearing.

A day earlier, Song Ok-rial, who was nominated by Yoon as the chairman of the Fair Trade Commission, dropped his candidacy following allegations that he sexually harassed students as a university professor nearly a decade ago.

Along with questions on controversies related to his appointments, Yoon was anticipated to take questions on his plan to visit a memorial altar set up for deceased former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo at the Japanese embassy here as well as his ideas on resuscitating the economy and containing the COVID-19 resurgence.

The opposition bloc claimed that the presidential office and Yoon decided to suspend the doorstepping sessions to prevent the president from making controversial comments and manage his faltering job approval rating.

"Citing COVID-19 is a poor excuse," main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) interim chief Woo Sang-ho told reporters. "The office seems to have judged that Yoon's doorstepping is becoming a news magnet and his mistakes may result in a further drop in his job approval rating. It would be better for the office to honestly say it will come up with other ways to communicate."

A senior official at the presidential office denied any relationship between the suspension and Yoon's job approval rating.

"There is absolutely no relationship between the suspension and the job approval rating," the official said. "The president's commitment to continue doorstepping is way stronger than that of ours."

According to a poll by Realmeter, Monday, Yoon's job approval rating stood at 37 percent, down 7.4 percentage points from a week earlier. It is the first time that Yoon's support rating fell below 40 percent in a survey by Realmeter.

The survey questioned 2,525 people from July 4 to 8 and further details are available on the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission's website.