President Park Geun-hye on Friday nominated a senior governing Saenuri Party lawmaker as the nation’s next prime minister, in a move apparently aimed at improving her record-low approval rating.
Prime Minister nominee Rep. Lee Wan-koo, 64, entered public service in 1974 and is a three-term lawmaker. The former governor of South Chungcheong Province and current Saenuri Party floor leader has earned a reputation as a compromiser on divisive partisan issues.
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| Lee Wan-koo. (Yonhap) |
Analysts said Lee’s appointment was part of efforts to redeem Park’s record-low approval ratings, which had fallen mainly due to her image as an uncommunicative leader.
Park’s rating was 30 percent on Thursday according to a Gallup Korea poll of 1,001 adults. The poll has a 3.1 percent margin of error and a 95 percent confidence level.
The record-low tally is the result of a weekslong nosedive in Park’s ratings, partially caused by her refusal to yield to opposition demands that she rename some of her top aides, and Cabinet members.
Public support for Park waned further earlier this week after preliminary calculations of this year’s tax settlements showed taxpayers nationwide could end up paying more taxes, or forfeit much of their rebates. Revisions to tax codes in 2013 by the government were faulted for the increased taxes.
Hasty countermeasures by the Saenuri Party and the government to legislate a retroactive tax code by April were denounced as populist and short-term moves by critics.
Local political experts, the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy and some members of Park’s Saenuri Party have recommended that Park conduct a radical Cabinet shake-up in order to lift her ratings.
Park had partially agreed, saying she would carry out a minor Cabinet shake-up and a partial reorganization of the presidential office, during her New Year’s press conference on Jan. 12.
But the announcement of Park’s latest approval rating appeared to have convinced Cheong Wa Dae officials to conduct a limited reshuffle earlier, to calm the growing public disapproval.
Senior NPAD officials welcomed Lee’s nomination but said they would strictly review the Saenuri lawmaker’s qualifications at his confirmation hearing in the National Assembly.
“Rep. Lee’s competence as a politician is already something everyone knows,” NPAD chair Rep. Moon Hee-sang said after the announcement was made.
But Moon urged Lee to “better facilitate communication between lawmakers and the president.”
“And you must know when to say no to the president,” Moon added in a meeting with Lee later Friday. Moon was echoing criticism that senior Saenuri Party officials were yes-men too afraid to offer the president honest political advice.
One analyst, though, said the latest personnel change would not be enough to stem Park’s falling ratings.
“This is a maximum-effort situation. This is a political crisis,” Hanshin University professor Yoon Pyung-joong said regarding Park’s falling ratings.
“But the latest decision is a minimum-effort move,” he said. “Presidential Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon remains in office.”
Kim was at the center of the NPAD’s reshuffle demands, as he is considered to be the one who should take responsibility for the Chung Yoon-hoi scandal, one of the contributors to Park’s low public ratings.
By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)
