Yoon’s agenda, policy direction in question at 2-year mark
Reform initiatives in labor, education, pension lose steam, lack effective outcomes
President Yoon Suk Yeol will mark the second anniversary of his inauguration on Friday, but the presidential office seems to be devoid of any celebratory mood, with Yoon’s top initiatives of reforming Korea’s labor, education and pension largely stalling amid ongoing partisan conflicts.
Awaiting Yoon is a challenging political landscape for the remaining three years of his presidency, as opposition parties will hold 192 out of 300 seats in the 22nd National Assembly, set to convene later this month.
Against that backdrop, the president is advised to start by clarifying his political agenda and policy direction and subsequently begin talks with the opposition to prevent the country from wasting three more years in an unproductive political stalemate.
Since his inauguration in May 2022, Yoon has been stressing his reform initiative in the country’s labor, education and pension systems, labeling them as “the three major reforms.”
The president said in his administration’s first address at the National Assembly right after taking office that the three reforms are tasks which can no longer be postponed. He reiterated that message in his New Year addresses of last year and this year.
Despite Yoon’s push for the reform initiatives, experts are saying there have been no tangible outcomes so far, mostly because they started off without setting clear objectives.
Under the goal of setting up a sustainable and future-oriented labor market, Yoon attempted to extend the maximum workweek to 69 hours in March last year, but ended up facing strong opposition from not only civic groups but also the general public.
After stirring controversy, related debates have lost traction, and in November, the government ultimately decided to maintain the current 52-hour workweek and add complementary measures.
In education, Yoon caused controversy in June after saying that the country’s College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) should not contain extremely difficult questions most test-sitters could not solve on their own, in order to be fairer for students who cannot attend expensive cram schools. Additionally, the government launched tax audits on large cram schools later that month.
However, the actual test in November was widely assessed as one of the most difficult CSATs in the country’s history, and media interviews revealed that most of the top scorers had attended expensive cram schools.
The pension reform effort is even criticized as being negligent. The government asked the Assembly to form a committee to debate and formulate a reform plan for the national pension.
The committee members initially narrowed their differences in the way of paying less premiums and receiving more compensation, but failed to reach an agreement on Tuesday after the ruling People Power Party (PPP) echoed the government’s concerns over sustainability.
During a meeting with main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairman Rep. Lee Jae-myung, Yoon said that the pension reform should be discussed more in the next Assembly.
Starting this year, Yoon added medical reform to his list, pushing his policy of increasing the number of doctors in the country by expanding the admissions quota of medical schools, despite a nationwide walkout by junior doctors and subsequent disruptions in major teaching hospitals’ medical services.
“The fundamental problem is that the president is engaging in those reforms without setting up a clear agenda or policy directions with which he wants to guide the nation,” said Ha Shang-eung, a politics professor at Sogang University.
“It is difficult to understand what the president wants and what the benefits of his reform push are.”
While the reform initiatives have gone adrift, partisan conflicts worsened, leading the president and his staff to concentrate on countering the opposition’s political offensives, rather than addressing state affairs related to people’s livelihoods.
In doing so, Yoon refused to communicate with the opposition, rejecting nine bills that passed the Assembly upon the DPK’s endorsement, including a nursing act in May last year and a pro-labor bill limiting companies from making damage claims against legitimate labor union disputes in December.
President Yoon Suk Yeol’s second anniversary
In January, Yoon also exercised his veto power on a bill launching a special counsel to look into first lady Kim Keon Hee’s alleged involvement in a stock manipulation scandal and another to investigate the Itaewon crowd crush, which resulted in the deaths of 159 people in Seoul’s Itaewon area in October 2022.
While threatening to propose those bills again in the next Assembly, the DPK is now urging Yoon to accept a special counsel probe into the government’s alleged interference in the military’s investigation into the death of a Marine during a rescue operation. Marine Cpl. Chae Su-geun died in a flash flood during a search-andrescue operation around a flooded stream last July.
Amid the partisan conflict, the PPP suffered a crushing defeat in the April 10 general elections, securing only 108 seats in the 300-member Assembly, a result that forced Yoon to promise that he will change his political philosophy and way of running the government.
With the opposition bloc set to extend its legislative control for the next four years, political analysts are already casting a skeptical outlook over Yoon’s ability to come up new policy tasks, and they suggest the president will have to find ways to cooperate with the opposition.
While the opposition is increasing its pressure on Yoon, his grip on the ruling party is also waning, as its lawmakers-elect openly opposed a Yoon loyalist’s bid to run for the PPP’s floor leader post.
Yoon’s press conference scheduled for today is gaining attention as it could serve as a barometer showing how Yoon will handle state affairs in the future.
“There’s no need to elaborate further on the importance of cooperation with the opposition,” Ha said. “However, before such cooperation can occur, he should clearly outline his political agenda and policy direction, so that the opposition can understand his objectives and work toward finding common ground through compromises.”