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| President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife, first lady Kim Keon-hee during Yoon's first official overseas trip to Spain for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in this June 30 file photo / Korea Times file |
Glitz and glamour of first lady, president's problematic inner circle do more harm than good: Mayor Hong Joon-pyo
By Kang Hyun-kyung
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| Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo / Korea Times file |
Hong singled out the first lady, the founder and president of her "fan club" and a group of Yoon's confidants who are called by the Korean acronym, "Yoon-haek-kwan," or President Yoon's inner circle as three groups of people who are causing issues that need to be properly addressed before they develop into major problems besetting the Yoon administration.
"Previously, there had been no first ladies who were at the center of the spotlight. There was no such thing as the glitz and glamour of the first lady because all of them kept a low profile and tried not to steal the show. They would reach out to underprivileged people who lived hard lives because, for various reasons, they had been excluded from the social safety net," Hong wrote in his social media post on Thursday. "People thought that's what the first lady was supposed to do… No other first lady had a fan club or whatever, and it's unprecedented that the leader of the first lady's fan club has tried to say do this or that to ruling party lawmakers. That is ridiculous," Hong wrote.
By the fan club, Hong was referring to first lady Kim Keon-hee's supporters who are members of the internet cafe website, "Keon-hee Sarang," or "We Love Keon-hee." Its controversial founder has been under fire after he openly and harshly criticized ruling party politicians in his social media posts.
Hong warned of the possible political risks caused by the first lady, mentioning how former President Moon Jae-in was negatively affected by his relatively more "outgoing" spouse, Kim Jung-sook.
It all began with a rumor about allegedly ill-mannered then first lady Kim who was said to have walked ahead of her husband, the mayor said.
"It's not a news story but rather gossip that deals blows to politicians and makes them lose popularity. Combined with fake news, that gossip can develop into a rumor and spread so fast that it soon becomes out of control. If this happens, politicians find it tricky to deal with it because they are not supposed to publicly mention rumors about themselves or react to them," he wrote. "See what happened during President Yoon's official trip to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit. It was not President Yoon's summit diplomacy but what the first lady wore on her neck and ankle that drew public attention."
Hong encouraged President Yoon to appoint a special investigator to be in charge of monitoring possible illicit activities of the president's family members and relatives and keep some of his troubled confidants at bay so that their problematic activities do not negatively affect him.
With his social media post, the outspoken Daegu mayor appeared to be belling the cat so to speak.
"I'm writing this on my way back to Daegu from Seoul because I'm so worried about the president after watching and hearing a sequence of concerning incidents," he wrote.
His social media post came as President Yoon's approval ratings have been continuously dropping.
A Gallup poll released last week showed that Yoon's approval rating had declined to 32 percent, about 20 percent down from that of the first week of June when his rating peaked at 53 percent. Several other polls have also found Yoon's approval rating to be continually falling, while the percentage of people who view Yoon negatively has climbed to over 60 percent.
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