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President Yoon Suk-yeol answers questions from the press while on his way to work on Aug. 8. (pool photo)

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol effectively sacked Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Park Soon-ae on Monday.

With a Gallup Korea opinion poll carried out during his vacation showing a job performance approval rating of just 24%, Yoon’s first message upon returning was a declaration that he would “accept the public’s will” and “maintain a beginner’s mindset.”

In an emergency press conference called at 5:30 pm Monday, Park Soon-ae said, “The entire controversy over revising the school system was due to carelessness on my part.”

“I intend to resign my position as deputy prime minister and minister of education,” she continued.

Park’s ignominious resignation comes 34 days after she was appointed without a confirmation hearing on July 4, despite revelations of drunk driving and allegations of academic plagiarism. In the interim, she faced a heavy backlash over what was widely viewed as a half-baked plan to revise the school system.

The Ministry of Education ended up facing a firestorm of public opinion after announcing plans to lower the elementary school admission age by one year to students aged at least 5 years old, along with additional plans to abolish foreign language high schools.

The school system revision plan in particular has played a major part in Yoon’s approval rating tumbling below 30%. With her resignation, Park became the first Cabinet minister to step down since the Yoon administration took office.

En route to his presidential office in Seoul’s Yongsan District on Monday morning after finishing up his five-day holiday, Yoon fielded questions from reporters about his position on replacing current officials, including Park.

In response, he said he planned to “review and examine every issue from the public’s standpoint,” adding that he would “take any necessary steps.” The reference to “necessary steps” was read as an allusion to Park’s possible departure.

Yoon’s replacement of Park is being seen as a bid to restore his sinking approval rating and regain momentum for his administration’s activities.

Appointments have been one of the most negatively rated areas in Yoon’s job performance ratings to date. A survey of 1,002 adult South Koreans nationwide conducted by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) on Friday and Saturday at the request of the TBS network showed just 27.5% of respondents rating Yoon’s job performance positively. Another 70.1% of respondents rated it negatively — the first time that percentage has exceeded 70% in a KSOI survey. The survey had a 95% confidence level, and a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Another survey conducted on Aug. 1–5 by Realmeter also showed just 29.3% of respondents rating Yoon’s job performance positively. (More details are available at the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.)

Yoon responded with a message of humility. While fielding questions on his way to work, he said, “What I have to do is to look closely at the public’s wishes and do a good job of honoring them while constantly maintaining a beginner’s mindset.”

In a weekly luncheon meeting with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, he said, “We do not have policies that go against the public’s will.”

But many in the political world insisted that Park’s departure was far from enough to fix things.

“They need to quickly normalize the governance situation through full-scale reforms to the Cabinet,” said Democratic Party floor leader Park Hong-keun.

An official with the ruling People Power Party stressed that it would “take time” before bold personnel changes take place.

“The president is weighing an approach that will minimize the vacuum in government operations,” they explained, suggesting the possibility that additional changes to the Cabinet and presidential office advisors may be forthcoming.

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

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