Ruling party lawmaker warns Lee's approval rating is 'collapsing without pause'

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Yoon Geon-young said Thursday that President Lee Jae Myung's sliding approval rating reflects a serious breakdown in public support.

Appearing on MBC Radio's "Kim Jong-bae's Focus," Yoon said the current downward trend in the president's approval rating is striking in both its scale and speed.

"There needs to be something that at least slows the decline, but the situation is one of collapse without pause," he said. He added that the local election results may have been a preview of a warning — "but the main feature has arrived far too soon."

Yoon identified trust as the core reason for the drop. "When a policy goes wrong, fixing and improving it can restore approval ratings — but once trust is broken, people simply refuse to look," he said.

"Whatever is done, whatever is said, people no longer believe it," he continued. "This is shaking the very foundation, and I raised this because we need to take it seriously before things get worse."

Yoon pointed particularly to controversies over the withdrawal of indictments and the debate over a constitutional amendment allowing consecutive presidential terms as fueling public doubt. "Many people who once wondered whether the president would really do such things have now reached the point of withdrawing their trust entirely," he said.

On President Lee's press conference scheduled for Friday, Yoon said it must be approached with the mindset that "if the public wants 10, the president should give 11." He added that the event was necessary to create a turning point that halts the approval rating decline and secures momentum for state affairs.

Turning to a dispute between Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae, who had criticized Kim Jiyong, the nominee for inaugural chief of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, and Democratic Party Chairman Kim Min-seok, who responded to her, Yoon advised both to show restraint. "Even if you use the same words, use the language of comrades — why resort to the language of exclusion?" he said.

On the ongoing clash between Chairman Kim and Rebuilding Korea Party research institute director Cho Guk over merger talks, Yoon urged both sides to exercise restraint, saying supporters of the progressive and reform camp "will not look favorably on this."

He told Chairman Kim that "right now, winning hearts matters more than the pace of change," and asked Director Cho to "consider using the language of respect and the language of comrades."