President admits ‘shortcomings’ in rare address

PRESIDENT Yoon Sukyeol held a rare press conference admitting “shortcomings” after his party’s recent electoral defeat, and laying out policies on issues from the country’s low birthrate to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The press conference was the president’s first in nearly two years, and comes after his party suffered a drubbing in legislative elections last month.

On Ukraine, Yoon vowed to keep strong ties with Kyiv while maintaining a smooth relationship with Russia, ruling out direct weapons shipments and telling reporters that it was his “firm stance” not to send lethal arms to countries at war.

On South Korea’s birthrate, one of the world’s lowest, he unveiled plans to create a ministry to tackle the issue, which he described as “a national emergency”.

His party’s defeat in the April 10 parliamentary elections prompted calls for Yoon to change his policy direction and leadership style, as his approval ratings languish less than halfway through his five-year term.

Yoon said he has “pondered a lot over what have been the shortcomings” of his administration.

“Communication to explain policy drives and the extent of change people have felt has fallen short,” he said.

Yoon won the 2022 presidential election by the narrowest margin in South Korean history, and his term has been hampered by a series of scandals and his party’s lack of a parliamentary majority.

The president also issued an apology for what he called the “unwise conduct” of his wife, first lady Kim Keon-hee, after hidden camera footage last year appeared to show her accepting a luxury handbag in violation of government ethics rules.

But Yoon said the opposition’s call for a special probe into the first lady was “politically motivated”.

His plan to fix the country’s woeful birthrate comes after it hit a record low in 2023, despite the government pouring billions of dollars into efforts to encourage women to have more children and maintain population stability.

The country’s fertility rate – the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime – dropped to 0.72 in 2023, down nearly eight per cent from 2022, according to preliminary data from Statistics Korea in February.

That is far below the 2.1 children needed to maintain the current population of 51 million, which at these rates will nearly halve by the year 2100, experts estimate.