Real Meter, an authoritative polling agency in South Korea, released the latest presidential approval rating survey on July 4, showing that Yin Xiyue's negative evaluation exceeded half for the first time after taking office as president.
According to South Korea's "Asian Economy", the survey shows that the South Korean people have a 45% praise rate for Yoon Seok-yue's administration and a bad evaluation rate of 51%. For the first time, more than half of the bad reviews were heard. Previously, the latest survey results released by a number of polling agencies such as the Korean Institute of Social Opinion (KSOI) also showed that Yoon Seok-yue's governance praise rate was lower than the bad rating rate.
South Korean President Yoon Seok-yue gave a speech at the NATO summit
In fact, in less than Two months since he took office on May 10, the president, who is considered pro-American, has caused a lot of "controversy."
The screen is empty and the file is blank
On July 3, south Korea's presidential palace released working photos taken by President Yoon Seok-yue during a NATO summit. Careful South Korean netizens found that in these photos, Yoon Seok-yue was either staring at a blank computer screen or "reviewing" "white paper files." In response, the South Korean presidential office responded that this is "the state in which the picture disappears after the president approves the state council documents" and "hopes not to cause everyone to misunderstand."
Yin Xiyue reviewed the materials at his local (Madrid, Spain) residence" And the content was empty
This is not yin Xiyue's first "posing", on March 9 this year, on the day of the election in South Korea, a South Korean video platform broadcast an image of Yin Xiyue riding in the office, when netizens found that the documents Yin Xiyue flipped through were "blank paper without any content".
Yoon Seok-yue's "no-sight" handshake by Biden sparked controversy
In addition to "nothing", there is also "disregard". The NATO summit, which concluded last Thursday in Madrid, Spain, was attended by four Asia-Pacific countries— Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea—in his first trip since taking office. Although the outside world has high expectations for this, the trip has not been as "smooth" as expected.
According to a number of Korean media reports such as "Chosun Ilbo", Yoon Seok-yue attended a dinner party to welcome world leaders on the 28th, and when shaking hands with US President Biden, Biden did not look at Yoon Seok-yue, but shook hands with Yoon Seok-yue while talking to others. This scene was captured by the camera and quickly triggered a heated discussion among South Korean netizens, and Han opposition supporters even produced a short video called "'No Sight' Handshake" that was widely disseminated online.
Others criticized the scene as "bringing a sense of humiliation to the South Korean people." ”
South Korean President Yoon Seok-wook encounters a "no-looking" handshake by US President Joe Biden
A South Korean netizen reported in the Chosun Ilbo newspaper: "Now tomorrow (Yoon Seok-wook) what to give to the United States, and will beg Biden for another handshake..."
Korean netizens left a message saying: Begging Biden to shake hands again
Nato's official website released a photo of Yin Xiyue closing his eyes
Not only that, on June 29, local time, the official website of NATO released a group photo of the NATO secretary-general with the leaders of South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, of which South Korean President Yoon Seok-yue's eyes were closed, which immediately triggered South Korean public opinion dissatisfaction. Some netizens said that this is a manifestation of NATO's "disregard" for South Korea.
On June 29, local time, NATO's official website released a group photo of the leaders of South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand
During the NATO summit, Yoon also had his first face-to-face conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, but it lasted only 3 or 4 minutes. Regarding the content of the conversation announced by the South Korean side, the Japanese side said that the content released by the South Korean side is "very different from the facts." Even saying that Kishida and Yoon Seok-yue met "in a natural way" at the dinner party and said a brief hello was quite embarrassing to the Korean side.
In addition, due to the four-hour talks on Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO attended by Finnish President Niinistö and NATO Secretary-General JenniferNsteinberg on June 28, the two originally planned to talk with Yin Xiyue were canceled, and some South Korean netizens criticized Yin Xiyue for "participating in nato summits that have nothing to do with South Korea, but in NATO, they were blinded and sat on the cold board."
Yin Xiyue salutes the American flag! unprecedented
What most chilled the Korean people should be the "salute incident" at the beginning of Yoon Seok-yue's appointment. On May 20, when Yin Xiyue took office for 10 days, he ushered in the first Asian trip of then US President Biden, and at the dinner party to welcome Biden on the 21st, when playing the US national anthem, Yin Xiyue also covered his chest with his right hand, triggering a "diplomatic dishonesty" controversy. No president of South Korea had saluted the Star-Spangled Banner before, only to pay attention to it. In the face of public accusations, the South Korean presidential office has been very tough in its response. In the statement, it said that Yoon Seok-yue's move was to show respect to the United States, and that there were no provisions restricting the relevant behavior in south Korea's relevant regulations, and Yoon Seok-yue's behavior did not violate the national etiquette norms.
South Korean President Yoon Seok-wooon salutes as the U.S. national anthem is played, and Park Byung-seok, the president of the Roksan National Assembly, to the right of Biden, stands upright
Pro-US Posture at a Glance How far "selling diplomacy" can go
The analysis pointed out that after Yin Xiyue came to power, he did not focus on the prevention and control of the epidemic in South Korea, boosting the South Korean economy, curbing high housing prices in South Korea and other practical matters of people's livelihood, but personally continued to brush up on the sense of existence in the international community but was constantly humiliated, and the South Korean people naturally had bored emotions. On the other hand, Yin Xiyue is a prosecutor and does not have much diplomatic experience, and Korean media believe that it is still worth waiting and seeing whether Yoon Seok-yue, the new president of South Korea, can really put into effect.
In addition, Yonhap News Agency quoted chief special commissioner Pei Chul-ho as saying that Prime Minister Han Deok-so and representative quan Shidong in the Kuomintang party court accused the relevant remarks of the previous government's personnel appointments as unpopular, coupled with the controversy caused by the instigation of evidence of bribery by lee joon-seok, the leader of the National Power Party, and the speech of Vice Premier Qiu Qinghao to make enterprises restrain a sharp salary increase, all of which had a negative impact on the president's approval rating.
South Korea's "Han National Daily" published an article holding that Yoon Seok-yue's attendance at the NATO summit has successfully emerged on the international stage, keeping pace with major heads of state, demonstrating a sense of existence and improving her status. The problem, however, is that if this is a decision made after a full discussion of the stakes, it means that choosing a one-sided diplomacy will create enormous difficulties for South Korea to gain a foothold in the future.
The analysis said that the inconvenience of South Korea's diplomacy will officially begin. There is no doubt that the ROK-U.S. alliance is South Korea's most important diplomatic asset, but the South Korean government's excessive pro-American and partialist line will narrow South Korea's foothold and deprive South Korea of diplomatic leverage. In this era, "one-eyed diplomacy" cannot safeguard national interests. Even American intellectuals have suggested to the Biden administration that it would be better for South Korea to maintain friendly relations than for South Korea to rely too much on the United States.
The author is Tian Xin, a direct news editor of Shenzhen Satellite TV
Editor 丨Liu Ying, editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News