Major Foreign Media: "Ruling Party's Defeat Accelerates Moon Jae-in Administration's Lame Duck"

▲On the 7th, Oh Se-hoon, the elected mayor of Seoul (left), and Park Hyung-joon, the elected mayor of Busan (right), who won the by-elections [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Major foreign media outlets gave significant coverage to the ruling party's crushing defeat in the by-elections for the mayoral posts of South Korea's two major cities, Seoul and Busan, held on the 7th, predicting that it will "accelerate the lame-duck period of the Moon Jae-in administration."

Bloomberg News foresaw that this election defeat would accelerate President Moon's lame-duck period. Bloomberg analyzed that "it will put a brake on the Moon Jae-in government's policies aimed at promoting more fiscal spending."

Other major foreign media also evaluated that "after the ruling party suffered a shocking defeat in the by-elections for the two major cities' mayoral posts, relations with North Korea have also fallen into uncertainty." Since President Moon's inauguration in 2017, he has urged easing sanctions and strengthening support for North Korea, but this election defeat is expected to cause the current administration to lose momentum.

Japanese foreign media also gave prominent coverage.

Japan's Sankei News featured the South Korean by-elections prominently at the top of its homepage. Sankei pointed out, "This election is a preliminary battle for next year's South Korean presidential election," adding, "The ruling party's defeat inevitably deals a blow to the Moon Jae-in administration, which has about a year left."

It further analyzed that amid soaring real estate prices becoming a major social issue in South Korea, there was a strong voice holding the ruling party responsible.

Kyodo News diagnosed on the 8th that the ruling party, the Democratic Party of Korea, suffered a defeat in this election as a backlash against the Moon administration.

Kyodo News pointed out, "With rising dissatisfaction over soaring real estate prices and increasing criticism of the government and ruling party, this election defeat raises the possibility that the Moon Jae-in government will enter a lame-duck period."

Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's highest-circulation newspaper, analyzed that "this by-election serves as a preliminary battle for the March presidential election in South Korea next year," citing the public backlash over the land speculation allegations involving employees of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) and the prosecution reform issue that led to the resignation of former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl as causes of the ruling party candidate's defeat.

The newspaper introduced that since early March this year, when these two issues surfaced, support for the Moon administration has continuously declined, falling to a historic low of 32% in a Gallup Korea poll released on the 2nd.

Yomiuri predicted that the ruling party's double defeat in the mayoral by-elections could lead to a decline in the Moon administration's diplomatic power due to the lame-duck period, potentially making it difficult to resolve ongoing Korea-Japan issues such as the forced labor and comfort women lawsuits.

Mainichi Shimbun also analyzed that the ruling party candidates' defeat in the two major mayoral elections in South Korea, which attracted attention as a preliminary battle for next year's presidential election, dealt a blow to the Moon Jae-in administration with less than a year left in its term, accelerating the lame-duck period.

Mainichi pointed out that since these by-elections were held due to former Democratic Party mayors committing suicide or resigning over sexual misconduct scandals, the ruling party was bound to face a backlash, and that the addition of real estate issues closely related to citizens' lives, such as the LH employees' speculation allegations, was the cause of the ruling party's defeat.

Asahi Shimbun diagnosed that President Moon's administration, struggling with declining approval ratings ahead of the March presidential election next year, has become even more difficult to manage.

Asahi reported that in this by-election, with the spotlight on soaring real estate prices and LH employees' speculation allegations, opposition candidates gained broad support not only from conservatives but also from independents, and that the ruling party candidates were at a disadvantage from the early stages of the election, preventing a policy competition from unfolding.

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