Park Ju-min: "The main cause of the approval rating drop is real estate... The rise in United Party's approval rating is a spillover benefit"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] Park Ju-min, a member of the National Assembly running for the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) leadership in the August 29 party convention, evaluated that “the main reason for the decline in the DPK’s approval rating lies in real estate.” He also analyzed that the United Future Party (UFP), which surpassed the DPK in approval ratings, “benefited from a spillover effect.”

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In an interview on the morning of the 14th with CBS Radio’s ‘Kim Hyun-jung’s News Show,’ Park said, “It seems that many citizens have recently been dissatisfied with the real estate policy.”

In response to the host’s question, “What did you think after seeing the poll results?” he stated, “First of all, the party should communicate more with the public and clearly explain the necessary parts, but since we failed to fulfill that role, I felt some frustration that this kind of result came out.”

He continued, “A basic role of a political party is to listen to many opinions when making policies, reflect them to increase specificity, and also to properly persuade the public during implementation. However, I think we have not done this well. Recently, during the policy implementation process, we failed to meet the public’s expectations or provide necessary explanations properly, which caused frustration and disappointment, leading to the decline in approval ratings,” he added.

Nevertheless, Park said, “I believe the current direction of the real estate policy is correct,” adding, “However, it requires time to achieve effectiveness. After some time passes, the effects will appear.” When asked, “Do you think the decline in approval ratings is temporary?” he replied, “If the real estate policy shows effects after some time, the approval ratings can recover.”

Regarding the rise in the UFP’s approval ratings, he analyzed it as a “spillover effect.” Park said, “Currently, the UFP’s strategy is damage control. They are managing negative factors such as harsh remarks within the party, but they are not actively pursuing positive initiatives. It is difficult to say that the UFP’s approval ratings have risen because they are doing something well actively.”