South Korea ruling party acting leader offers to quit

Bloomberg

The acting leader of South Korea’s ruling party offered to resign over in-fighting in the People Power Party, adding to the growing woes for new President, Yoon Suk Yeol, whose approval ratings have plunged to historic lows.
“Our party is currently facing a grave crisis,” Kweon Seong-dong, the acting leader of the People Power Party, said in his social media account Sunday. “As the representative of the party, I am fully responsible for what has been going around.”
Kweon’s offer to quit comes less than a month after 37-year-old party leader Lee Jun-seok was suspended for six months over an alleged sex scandal, which he claims was a political set-up by Yoon’s inner circles.
At least three PPP lawmakers have resigned from their leadership posts since Friday. The party is set to appoint an interim leader to guide until the next primary, which is yet to be scheduled, or until Lee returns to his seat.
Last week, text messages between Kweon and Yoon were leaked to the media and appeared to show the two expressing their pleasure at the change in the party’s leadership. Kweon apologized almost immediately, and the presidential office defended Yoon, saying it would be “inappropriate” to read too much into the text messages.
The approval ratings for the president, his government and the party have plunged since the messages were released. The conservative-backed administration’ approval rating has sunk to 28%, while 62% were dissatisfied with Yoon, according to a tracking poll by Gallup Korea Friday.