SEOUL, September 04 (AJP) - The roster for President Lee Jae Myung’s 2.0 reshuffle has generated a rumpus before the nominees even arrive at South Korea’s legislative confirmation hearings, denting the already fragile popularity of the presidency.
According to the latest Gallup Korea poll, 40 percent of respondents positively assessed Lee’s job performance, while 51 percent gave a negative assessment. The positive rating was the lowest since he took office, while the negative rating was the highest.
Among respondents in their 20s, the negative rating stood at 51 percent, more than double the positive rating of 25 percent. The proportion of respondents who cited “personnel appointments” as a reason for their negative assessment rose ninefold to 9 percent from 1 percent in the previous survey.
On Sunday, the presidential office named six Cabinet replacements, including new finance and land ministers through promotions from within the government, as Lee seeks to strengthen his economic team and tackle housing issues.
What has struck the loudest discord, however, are the political recruits.
Rep. Kim Seung-won of the Democratic Party (DP), the nominee for justice minister, is under fire over his previous support for withdrawing indictments against President Lee Jae Myung and a separate lobbying allegation.
The withdrawal of indictments refers to prosecutors dropping indictments in criminal cases in which Lee had been charged. The five criminal trials involving Lee were suspended after he took office, but the indictments themselves remain in place.
Kim served as a co-chair when a group of 105 DP lawmakers advocating withdrawal of the indictments was launched in February.
“The justice minister does not have direct authority over the matter, and I have no intention of directing it through the prosecutor general,” Kim said Thursday when a reporter asked about his position on withdrawing the indictments as he arrived for the first time at his confirmation hearing preparation office in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
“The fact that Kim cares more about the president than the people alone makes him unqualified to serve as justice minister,” Rep. Kim Tae Kyu of the People Power Party (PPP) said.
“If he becomes minister, he will be nothing more than President Lee Jae Myung’s personal lawyer,” Kim said.
“If Kim becomes justice minister and pushes ahead with withdrawing the indictments, there will be an enormous storm,” Yoo Seong-min, a former four-term lawmaker and former floor leader of the PPP, said.
Kim Seung-won is separately facing renewed scrutiny over allegations that he lobbied the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
Kim told reporters Monday that prosecutors had conducted an intensive three-year investigation starting in 2021 involving more than 10 prosecutors but ultimately decided not to indict him over the allegations.
“I believe that was unfair because I should have been cleared of wrongdoing, but prosecutors instead suspended the indictment based on some of my actions,” Kim said.
“I filed a constitutional complaint last year, and I understand that the Constitutional Court is currently reviewing the case,” Kim said. “I want to clear up the injustice to the very end.”
“The allegations involving improper solicitation of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety are decisive evidence that Kim is unfit to serve as minister,” Rep. Kim Tae Kyu of the PPP said.
DP lawmakers defended Kim.
"The person accused of making the solicitation was acquitted at trial, so it is clear that Kim was also innocent of any wrongdoing," said Rep. Jin Seong-joon, a three-term lawmaker of the DP.
Another major controversy surrounds Yong Hye-in, a Basic Income Party lawmaker nominated for gender equality and family minister.
Questions have centered on her decision to retain her proportional-representation National Assembly seat while serving as minister and accusations that her party has effectively been run as a “family-run party.”
Yong was elected twice in a row as a proportional-representation lawmaker, in 2020 and 2024, through Democratic Party-led proportional coalition parties.
She has said she will not give up her parliamentary seat even if she becomes minister, drawing criticism from the opposition and some in the broader progressive bloc that the arrangement would amount to excessive preferential treatment.
Yong’s spouse worked as a party official for the Basic Income Party and received one of the highest salaries among party employees, while questions were also raised over the party awarding policy research projects to insiders.
“Yong was never qualified to be a lawmaker in the first place, and her two terms as a proportional-representation lawmaker through tricks involving satellite parties and party withdrawals, along with running the party like a family business, make her a symbol of the hypocrisy and greed of the left,” Yoo Seong-min said.
“As a member of the Gender Equality and Family Committee, I have been looking into nominee Yong Hye-in, and there are many problems,” Rep. Kim Gunn of the PPP said.
Explaining why she intends to retain her proportional-representation seat, Yong cited the fact that she is the Basic Income Party’s only incumbent lawmaker.
“If I, the party’s only National Assembly member, resign, the Basic Income Party would face the difficulty of becoming a party without parliamentary representation,” Yong said Monday.
She also said she was aware of concerns that retaining her parliamentary seat could be seen as a privilege or benefit and asked for understanding of the circumstances facing a minor party.
In response to criticism that she had received preferential treatment by being elected twice through Democratic Party-led proportional coalition parties, she said she had already informed her party that she would not run for a proportional-representation seat in the next general election.
The party pushed back against the “family-run party” controversy surrounding Yong’s spouse.
“This criticism goes beyond the minimum bounds of propriety,” Moon Mi-jung, acting leader of the Basic Income Party, said, explaining that Yong’s spouse had played a major role in the party’s growth since its founding.
Jin also defended Yong against criticism over her parliamentary seat and her husband’s role in the party.
"As for Yong, there is no particular reason why the issue of lawmakers concurrently seving as Cabinet ministers should be judged more strictly simply because she is a proportional-representation lawmaker," Jin said.
"The controversy over the party being a 'family-run party' is also not difficult to understand, given the Basic Income Party is a small party with limited organizational capacity and resources and that both Yong and her husband has long been dedicated activist," Jin added.
The other four nominees have attracted less controversy.
Lee Hyoung Il, first vice minister of finance and economy, was nominated to serve as deputy prime minister and minister of economy and finance; Kang Shin-chul, former deputy commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC), was nominated for defense minister; Rep. Lee So-young of the DP was nominated for minister of SMEs and startups; and Hong Jee-sun, vice minister for transport, was nominated for minister of land, infrastructure and transport.
“This Cabinet reshuffle has three key features: youth, expertise and stronger reformist-progressive solidarity,” DP leader Kim Min-seok said Sunday at the opening of Rep. Kim Yoon’s constituency office in Gyeonggi Province.
“Taken together, they fit perfectly with our party’s push to broaden its focus on people’s livelihoods and pragmatism.”
The opposition criticized not only individual nominees but also the overall scale and substance of the reshuffle.
“At a time when President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating is falling, a reshuffle that replaces only six ministers shows no sense of crisis and is complacent,” Yoo said.
“Rep. Lee So-young is a perspicacious lawmaker, while the other three nominees are simply bureaucrats who are good at following the president’s orders,” Yoo added.
“This reshuffle is disappointing,” five-term lawmaker Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun said. “The economic achievements of this administration were made possible by businesses, but the government mistakenly believes they were achieved through its own ability.”
“The Lee Jae Myung administration mistook good fortune for competence, became arrogant and has now been hit by falling approval ratings,” Yoon said.
Kim Seung-won and Yong Hye-in could not be reached for separate comments.
Whether Kim and Yong make it through the confirmation hearings will depend partly on how convincingly they answer the allegations surrounding them. The political cost, however, may already be showing.
Gallup’s latest survey suggests personnel appointments are becoming a more visible source of dissatisfaction with Lee, turning a reshuffle intended to refresh his government into another test for a presidency already struggling to hold public support.
AJP Takeaways
- President Lee Jae Myung’s approval rating fell to a record-low 40 percent as controversy over his second Cabinet reshuffle intensified. Gallup Korea found negative assessments rose to 51 percent, with personnel appointments increasingly cited as a reason for dissatisfaction.
- Justice minister nominee Kim Seung-won and gender equality and family minister nominee Yong Hye-in have emerged as the most contentious picks. Kim faces criticism over past lobbying-related allegations and support for dropping indictments against Lee, while Yong has drawn scrutiny over proportional representation and claims that the Basic Income Party operates as a “family party.”
- Democratic Party lawmakers have defended both nominees, arguing the allegations do not disqualify them from office. Jin Seong-joon said Kim should not be considered culpable after the person involved in the solicitation case was acquitted, while describing criticism of Yong as excessive given the Basic Income Party’s small size and limited resources.
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