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President Yoon Suk Yeol (right) shakes hands with People Power Party Chair Han Dong-hoon, as Yoon arrived at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, after ending his weeklong trip to Southeast Asia on Friday. (Yonhap) |
President Yoon Suk Yeol's office said Monday that a meeting between Yoon and ruling People Power Party Chair Han Dong-hoon will be held next week.
According to Yoon's office, the meeting of the conservative ruling bloc's two prominent leaders will take place sometime early next week, following Wednesday's by-elections this week. The office also said it was coordinating with the ruling party.
The meeting is drawing keen attention over whether Yoon and Han are able to fully mend fences. Han, Yoon's onetime political confidant, has ramped up calls for the presidential office's reorganization amid speculations surrounding first lady Kim Keon Hee's influence-peddling.
In his latest move Monday, Han told reporters after a party meeting that the public's misunderstanding that some officials of the presidential office have a personal relationship with Kim "does not help restore public trust" in the conservative bloc.
He added that Kim "is not endowed with the power" to engage in state affairs.
When asked about the significance of the upcoming meeting with Yoon, Han said the president could "restore public trust as the meeting could serve as an impetus for changes."
This echoed Han's previous remarks Saturday, when he was campaigning for by-elections in Busan, that a reorganization must take place "to mitigate public concerns about Kim." Han also said the previous week that it is "necessary" for Kim to refrain from making any public appearances.
A senior official of the presidential office, on condition of anonymity, on Monday flatly denied Kim's involvement in state affairs, saying Yoon "is the only person who can make political appointments" regarding a high-ranking individual's positions and that allegations of interference are based on "groundless rumors."
There are media speculations that up to seven officials in the presidential office had a personal relationship with Kim and allowed her to meddle in state affairs.
This is the latest speculation surrounding Kim, as she has already been accused of interfering in the party's internal process of choosing who to contend in an individual electorate for the general election in April.
Yoon has recently been under fire after a media revelation that a man named Myung Tae-kyun had meddled in the party's general election nomination process while arranging the matter with Kim. Myung ran a polling service that consistently announced results showing Yoon had been leading in polls during the presidential election campaign in 2022.
The revelations could be a reason why Yoon "could be impeached," according to the opposition Democratic Party of Korea's Rep. Jeon Hyun-heui.
Also, a former presidential office official's interview in October with Voice of Seoul -- a news outlet that filmed a man gifting a luxury handbag to Kim and released the footage leading to the "Dior bag scandal" -- indicated that Kim might be behind nepotism practices in the public sector.
On the same day, Yoon's approval rating hit an all-time low, just as Yoon returned to Seoul after his weeklong trip to Southeast Asia on the occasion of the ASEAN Summit the previous week, according to pollster Realmeter on Monday.
Yoon's support in the second week of October came to 25.8 percent, the lowest through Yoon's term that began in May 2022. The same figure had been recorded two weeks earlier as well.
