Jeong Cheong-rae: "Moon's Lame Duck? If It Were Park Geun-hye's Time, 'Concrete Approval Ratings' Would Have Dropped Rapidly"

Jeong Cheong-rae, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Seung-gon, Intern Reporter Kim Yeon-ju] On the 12th, Jeong Cheong-rae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, rebutted the claim by some that the decline in President Moon Jae-in's approval rating indicates signs of a lame-duck period, saying, "If it were during the Park Geun-hye administration, it would have been praised as a concrete approval rating."

Jeong appeared on KBS1's 'Sasa Geongeon' on the 12th and said, "The approval rating is coming out the same. If you want to talk about the lame-duck phenomenon, you should rather talk about the fourth quarter of the second year when it dropped from 55% to 46%," he said.

He explained, "Recently, Gallup conducted quarterly approval rating evaluations of past presidents starting from President Roh Tae-woo. Currently (the fourth quarter of the third year), President Moon's approval rating is 46%, while four years ago at this time, President Park Geun-hye's approval rating was 43%."

He continued, "This was during the latter half of her administration, and it was the highest point for President Park Geun-hye," adding, "At that time, the media described the Park Geun-hye administration's presidential approval rating as soaring and concrete, but President Moon's rating is 3% higher than that."

Regarding the recent narrowing gap in party approval ratings between the Democratic Party and the United Future Party, he said, "The opposition party needs to be strong and healthy, and the ruling party also needs to be healthy to govern well," but pointed out, "When I asked polling experts whether the opposition party is properly fulfilling its role, 70-80% responded 'No.'"

He added, "There is a temporary effect causing the rise now, but I heard analyses suggesting this might be the peak."

Addressing the cause of this year's heavy rain damage amid the controversy over the Four Major Rivers Project dams, he said, "An expert diagnosed that because of the dams, the water depth increased and water pressure rose, which caused flood damage," and claimed, "There is even data showing that flood damage costs increased eightfold after the Four Major Rivers Project."

He then criticized, "Those who aggressively claim that the whole country would have been more flooded without the Four Major Rivers Project are so-called pro-Lee Myung-bak politicians," and said, "Politicians who were close to President Lee Myung-bak are, in my view, killing him twice."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.