‘He won’t budge an inch’: South Korea’s humbled yet defiant Yoon ploughs on despite electoral drubbing

“We should all humbly accept the people’s will expressed through the elections,” Yoon said in a televised statement ahead of a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, his first public remarks on the polls since they were held on April 10.

He insisted his administration had done its best to “set the right direction” and implement “many good policies”, but said it had fallen short of making enough changes to satisfy expectations for better living standards. Off camera, Yoon apparently wrapped up the cabinet meeting with an apology for this failure and called for better government communication, a senior official of the presidential office later told journalists.

“Through the remarks, he made it clear that he won’t budge an inch from his stubborn leadership style and policies,” Jung Suk-koo, a former executive editor of the centre-left Hankyoreh daily, told This Week in Asia.

Yoon’s ruling People Power Party won 108 of the National Assembly’s 300 seats at the April 10 election, narrowly preventing opposition parties from obtaining the two-thirds majority required to seek his impeachment.

As a result of the electoral drubbing, Yoon will be the first South Korean president to face a hostile parliament throughout his entire five-year term, which is set to end in May 2027.

His past two years at the helm have been marked by gridlock in the opposition-controlled parliament, with critics noting that Yoon – a political novice who spent decades as a prosecutor before winning the presidency – had made little effort to compromise with opponents so he can push through what he characterises as pro-market labour, pension and education reforms.

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South Korea’s first lady absent from public eye ahead of parliamentary polls

His executive orders have