Yoon to address election defeat Tuesday

President Yoon Suk Yeol will give his first public remarks about his plans after last week’s parliamentary election defeat during a Cabinet meeting this week, a presidential official said Monday.

Yoon will use his opening remarks during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting to speak about how he plans to overhaul state affairs and cooperate with the incoming National Assembly, the official said. The remarks will be broadcast live.

The ruling People Power Party suffered a crushing defeat in the parliamentary elections last Wednesday, securing only 108 of the 300 seats in the National Assembly. The vote was seen as a midterm referendum on Yoon’s performance two years into his single, five-year term.

“If he speaks about the general elections during the Cabinet meeting, a separate address to the nation will probably not be necessary,” the presidential official said, referring to earlier reports Yoon could give a national address or a press conference to deliver his stance.

Though Tuesday’s remarks will be his first in person, Yoon did issue a brief statement through his chief of staff the day after the elections, saying he would “humbly uphold the people’s will shown in the general elections” and work to reform state affairs and stabilize people’s livelihoods.

He honed in on the message during his weekly meeting with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Monday, saying they should do their best to stabilize people’s livelihoods, as “the top priority in state affairs is people’s livelihoods, and again, people’s livelihoods,” according to presidential spokesperson Kim Soo-kyung.

Yoon also asked Han to once again check the level of commitment and discipline of public officials as part of efforts to improve people’s livelihoods, she said.

The prime minister, chief of staff Lee Kwan-sup and most senior presidential secretaries have submitted their resignations since the elections, setting off speculation about who will be appointed to replace them.

Among the names talked about for prime minister nominee are Kim Han-gil, chief of the Presidential Committee of National Cohesion, and PPP Reps. Joo Ho-young and Kwon Young-se.

Potential candidates for the next presidential chief of staff include former Land Minister Won Hee-ryong, PPP Rep. Chung Jin-suk and former PPP Rep. Lee Jung-hyun.

Yoon is also expected to reorganize the presidential office in the wake of the election defeat.

In particular, he is reportedly considering establishing a new position of senior presidential secretary for legal affairs to better monitor public opinion.

“There’s a need to track and collect the diverse opinions of the public and offer them as a reference for the president’s running of state affairs,” a ruling bloc official said.