Sunday marked the sixth month since President Park Geun-hye took office, and analysts are
taking the opportunity to examine what her administration has accomplished, and where
it's fallen short.
And we will do the same, with an in-depth look at President Park's performance over
the past six months.
For that, we now connnect to our presidential office correpondent Eoh Jin-joo at the Arirang
News Center.
So Jin-joo, what do the people here in Korea think about President Park's first six months
in office?
Well, more than half of the people here in the nation think President Park is doing a
good job.
If we look at this graph, it shows that President Park's approval rating has steadily increased
since her inauguration in February.
She was... what experts call... a "slow starter."
Her approval rating in early April was at 41 percent, but this figure jumped to 54 percent
in a survey announced in the third week of August.
Now this figure is almost double that of former Presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Myung-bak's
at the six-month mark.
Their approval ratings at around that time stood at 29 and 24 percent, respectively,
a big drop from the approval ratings they received in their first to second months in
office.
In President Roh's case, the low marks were the result of a conflict with the conservative
camp.
In the case of the Lee administration, it was a controversial decision to resume U.S.beef
imports... despite public concern over mad cow disease.
So, what are some of President Park's policies that are being well received by the public
and experts?
Well, looking at the change in her approval rating, we can see what President Park did
well and did NOT do well.
Her failed appointments and nominations of high-ranking officials, for example, starting
with her nomination of Kim Yong-joon for prime minister, were what dragged down her approval
rating to its lowest point at 41 percent.
But, the figure started to pick up around May, ironically due to North Korea's continued
threats.
Let's take a further look.
Even after the North unilaterally shut down the inter-Korean Gaeseong Industrial Complex
in April, President Park wasn't swayed by Pyongyang's threats and consistently upheld
her North Korea policy, making it clear that there will be no compromises made on such
provocative behavior.
Her strategy eventually drew the North back to the negotiating table, which resulted in
a joint agreement between the two Koreas stating there will not be further halts at the business
park and the two will work towards globalization of the complex.
"I hope that the two Koreas can use this agreement as an opportunity to correct wrong practices
in past inter-Korean relations and start a new relationship in which the two sides can
prosper together."
President Park also proved her strength in diplomacy.
Her approval rating hit its highest point at 63 percent after she made visits to the
U.S. in early May and China in late June.
During the bilateral summits with U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping,...
President Park was able to secure full support from both countries on her push for a trust-building
process with North Korea.
"We are determined to be fully prepared for any challenge or threat to our security and
obviously that includes the threat from North Korea."
"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is heading in a positive direction and we hope
that related countries can work together to quickly resume the six-party talks."
In particular,...Presidents Park and Xi agreed that North Korea's nuclear program is unacceptable
under any circumstances.
Experts say that although it might be too early to talk about a denuclearized peninsula,
she made a meaningful first step towards her trust building process with the North.
People also gave her high grades for pushing to root out corruption, including the administration's
hunt for ex-President Chun Doo-hwan's illegal assets, which he owes to state.
"Our government is trying to put an end to this problem of trying to bring back in the
former president's illegal funds, which previous governments weren't able to solve for more
than a decade."
President Park has put forth a goal of "normalizing abnormal practices",... and is strongly pushing
ahead with investigation into corruption scandals in the nuclear power plant sector and audit
results of the four-rivers restoration project.
Then, in what areas does President Park need to improve?
Going back to the graph again,... the main reason in the drop of her approval
rating from nearly 60 percent to 54 percent earlier in August...
was the tax code overhaul announced on the 8th.
This resulted in strong backlash from the opposition party and much of the public ... as
the proposal increased taxation on some 4-point-3 million salaried employees with an annual
income of more than 31-thousand dollars, many of them falling into the middle class bracket.
The finance ministry quickly put forth a revised version of the tax code proposal, but many
experts criticized President Park's economic team for being ignorant about what can actually
help the people's livelihoods.
There's also concern that the finance ministry and the deputy prime minister are not fulfilling
their roles as an economic control tower but relying on the presidential office of Cheong
Wa Dae.
Other than that, a lack of communication with the opposition party and the public still
remains an area in which President Park needs to improve.
Cheong Wa Dae explained that if the first six months were a period for setting up the
blueprint for the Park administration.
It says it will now speed up its efforts to push ahead with actual measures to revitalize
the economy and create more jobs, as well as carrying out "sales diplomacy" with other
countries.
Thanks for that report Jin-joo
That was our Presidential correspondent Eoh Jin-joo, reporting live from the news center
on the first six months of the Park Geun-hye administration.