South Korean President Lee Myung Bak must wonder whatever happened to his honeymoon. His first 100 days in office were marked by the sharpest plunge in popularity ratings of any democratically elected Korean leader. The fault is not Mr. Lee's alone, but the majority of the blame is his. Only he can stop the downward spiral, however. We will now see if Mr. Lee is truly a "bulldozer."
Even before taking office, Mr. Lee's team looked confused. Mixed signals were sent about the fate of the Ministry of Reunification — there were suggestions it would be abolished — and then several Cabinet choices were involved in scandals. He was elected on a pledge to re-energize the South Korean economy and return to 7 percent growth, but rising energy prices and a global slowdown make those heady targets look unreachable.
Critics charge those goals were ambitious for a developed economy like that of South Korea, no matter what the external conditions. But Mr. Lee has contributed to his own woes. On the eve of his first trip to the United States, he promised to reopen the Korean market to U.S. beef exports, a move that was designed to surmount a key obstacle to the realization of the proposed Korea-U.S. free-trade agreement (KORUS). Unfortunately, his decision was not appreciated by the U.S. — all free-trade agreements are now caught up in U.S. domestic politics — and Mr. Lee underestimated the depth of South Korean concern about the safety of those imports.