Lee's approval rating soars for 5th consecutive week: poll
President Lee Jae-myung on Monday called for strict penalties for safety negligence during a visit to an underpass in Osong-eup in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, where a deadly flash flood killed 14 people in July 2023.
With a black ribbon pinned to his chest in a show of condolences for the lives lost, Lee was briefed about the cause of the riverbank collapse and the inundation two years ago by officials of both the Environment Ministry and North Chungcheong Province, according to Lee's spokesperson Kang Yu-jung on Monday.
Inspecting flood-prone areas and the management of rivers in the region, Lee highlighted a need for strict criminal penalties in light of the deadly incidents caused by lack of proper management, Kang also said.
Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the disaster, when the sudden collapse of a nearby construction site's embankment caused the 4.5-meter-deep, 430-meter-long underpass to be submerged within three minutes.
Lee became the first president to visit the site, as Lee's predecessor, disgraced former President Yoon Suk Yeol, never went there during his shortened term despite the incident occurring during his presidency.
Lee's visit followed a weather forecast of heavy downpours to extend at least until Tuesday in most regions nationwide.
Earlier Monday, Lee delivered remarks to civil servant trainees in the province.
There, Lee stressed the need for civil servants to be loyal to the country and its population, adding that the quality of people's lives hinge on each civil servant’s job performance. Lee was the first South Korean president to officially meet with civil servant trainees in 20 years, since Roh Moo-hyun did so in 2005.
Meanwhile, Lee's approval rating extended a winning streak to a fifth straight week since his inauguration, amid a widening special counsel probe into former President Yoon and his wife Kim Keon Hee, a poll showed Monday.
The approval rating of the liberal president, who took office on June 4, came to 64.6 percent, according to the poll of 2,513 South Korean adults conducted by Realmeter from July 7-11. The figure was up 2.5 percentage points from the previous week.
Those who disapproved of Lee's performance amounted to 30 percent of all respondents, down 1.4 percentage points from the previous week.
Realmeter noted that the Lee administration "has managed to consolidate the uptrend" in its popularity, adding that his approval rating was buoyed by the arrest of Yoon on Thursday morning, four months after he was released on a court order. Yoon is largely considered to be the mastermind behind the Dec. 3, 2024, martial law imposition in an apparent bid to strengthen his grip on state affairs.
Ongoing revelations of Yoon's misdeeds during his term, uncovered in the special counsel investigation, as well as Lee's nominations for key government posts, have contributed to Lee's rise in popularity, according to Realmeter.
Lee's approval rating started at 58.6 percent in the second week of June and has steadily climbed over the past month.
The same set of polls on Monday also put the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's popularity at 56.2 percent, the highest point in about seven years. The figure was also 2.4 percentage points higher than the previous week. The support rating of the main opposition People Power Party hit 24.3 percent, the lowest recorded since it rebranded itself as the People Power Party in September 2020.
consnow@heraldcorp.com
