Returned President Moon, Now the Focus Shifts to 'Domestic Affairs'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Lee Ji-eun and Oh Ju-yeon] President Moon Jae-in, who has returned from his European tour, faces a number of pressing issues to resolve, including a meeting with Lee Jun-seok, the new leader of the People Power Party, vaccine and quarantine measures, and the pardon of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong.

According to the Blue House on the 21st, President Moon will not hold the weekly senior secretaries and aides meeting this week and will review key issues without any official schedule. The most urgent task is a meeting with Lee Jun-seok. Although the possibility of a ‘summit meeting’ was initially raised, Lee did not request such a meeting. Therefore, their first encounter is likely to take place in the form of a permanent consultative body involving the ruling party, opposition, and government. On the 16th, Lee received a congratulatory flower arrangement from President Moon and expressed hope that the permanent consultative body among the ruling party, opposition, and government would become more active.

Attention is also focused on whether the ongoing discussions about pardoning Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong will be reviewed, with Liberation Day just over two months away. While there are suggestions within the ruling party about the possibility of parole for Lee, business circles, including Sohn Kyung-shik, chairman of the Korea Employers Federation, continue to demand a pardon. The reason for preferring a pardon over parole is that parole imposes restrictions on business activities. Discussions about pardoning former Presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak are also still ongoing. The unresolved task of improving Korea-Japan relations, which was not addressed at the G7 summit, remains. It is uncertain whether President Moon will pursue a visit to Japan in connection with attending the Tokyo Olympics. Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Lee Cheol-hee criticized reports in the Japanese media about a visit to Japan, calling them "unreasonable." Tasks related to vaccine inoculation, quarantine checks, and personnel issues also remain.

Meanwhile, a Realmeter survey commissioned by YTN on President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating for state affairs (conducted from the 14th to the 18th among 2,514 voters aged 18 and over, with a sampling error of ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level) showed that positive evaluations of ‘doing well in state affairs’ rose by 1.1 percentage points from the previous week to 39.6%, marking a second consecutive week of increase. This is the highest level in over three months since the first week of March (40.1%). The rise in approval ratings is interpreted as reflecting increased positive evaluations and expectations for summit diplomacy following the European tour, bringing the approval rating close to the 40% range. Negative evaluations fell by 0.9 percentage points to 56.7%, and ‘don’t know/no response’ decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 3.7%. The gap between positive and negative evaluations stands at 17.1 percentage points, which is outside the margin of error.

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