According to his office today, the president of South Korea will stop holding the informal press conferences that he has conducted almost daily since taking office in May due to an increase in COVID-19 infections and a decline in his support ratings.
The discontinuation of the impromptu briefings, which defied decades of custom as President Yoon Suk-yeol sought to increase transparency, also coincides with mounting concerns over scandal and intraparty strife.
Yoon currently has a 37% approval rating, down from more than 52% in the first week of June, according to a poll conducted by Realmeter. Meanwhile, 57% now disapprove of his performance.
South Korea relaxed most restrictions this year despite a massive wave of Omicron-variant illnesses after stringent tracing, tracking, and quarantine efforts helped to contain infections and deaths for a large portion of the epidemic.