Na Kyung-won: Lee Jae Myung blames intra-party strife for 'dead cross' approval slide

By Jung Seok-jun, The Herald Business

People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won on Tuesday criticized President Lee Jae Myung for blaming intra-party conflict for his falling approval ratings, after polls showed negative assessments of his governance had overtaken positive ones — a threshold known in Korean political parlance as a "dead cross."

Writing on Facebook that day, Na took aim at a Cheong Wa Dae statement saying it would accept the polling results "solemnly and humbly," arguing that the president's actions told a different story. "But contrary to his words, the president is insisting that the direction of state affairs will not change," she said.

Na called the gap between the president's rhetoric and his conduct "a serious inconsistency between words and deeds." She added that Lee was invoking corruption at the National Election Commission and expressing sympathy for young people's sense of alienation only because his approval numbers had dropped further. "He offers hollow comfort," she said.

Na also questioned why the administration had been quick to call for special prosecutors in other cases but was avoiding one over alleged corruption at the election commission. "No one trusts the joint investigation unit set up by the Lee Jae Myung administration — the very administration that bears full responsibility for the irregularities in this election — as anything other than a face-saving exercise," she said.

"What does it mean to have the subject of an investigation conduct the investigation itself?" Na said, demanding that a special prosecutor be immediately appointed to probe corruption surrounding the June 3 local elections. She also accused the administration of shutting young people out through real estate regulations that "kick away the ladder of opportunity," pro-union and anti-business policies, and reckless cash-handout fiscal spending — then offering them "fake consolation" in return.

Na said the administration's behavior amounted to "a second assault on young people." She called on the government to stop what she described as a "deceptive performance of false comfort" directed at youth and to conduct a full review of its governing agenda — which she said had completely failed — from the June 3 local elections controversy to real estate, employment and the broader economy.