With the state of emergency on Dec. 3, President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating has hit rock bottom, and the prices of commemorative items related to Yoon are also on the decline.
According to the industry on the 11th, the 'Classic' model of President Yoon's commemorative watch was transacted for 80,000 won on the online secondhand trading platform Junggonara. Considering it was priced at over 200,000 won during the early days of his presidency, the price has plummeted by more than half. Recently, the blue 'Sports' model was also transacted for 60,000 won.
This decline is attributed to the emergency state. While it was priced at 100,000 won level early this year, it fell below that after the emergency state.
The number of listings is on the rise. Over the past year, 243 of President Yoon's watches were listed on this site, with 12 of them posted within a week following the state of emergency. In the past, one was listed every one to two days, but now two to three are listed daily.
The market price of President Yoon's watch is lower than the Chun Doo-hwan watch (84,000 won). The most expensive is the Moon Jae-in watch at 180,000 won, followed by the Roh Tae-woo watch (120,000 won) and the Park Geun-hye watch (90,000 won).
Items as popular as the watches in the secondhand market are the president's holiday gift sets. However, given the current situation where resignation and impeachment are mentioned, it is uncertain if President Yoon's holiday gift set will be released for next year's Lunar New Year.
Previously, the gift sets sent to various sectors by the presidential office for this year's Lunar New Year were transacted for 100,000 to 200,000 won. They reportedly consisted of traditional liquor, yuja tea, and jerky.
Meanwhile, in a public opinion poll conducted by Kukmin Ilbo and commissioned to Gallup Korea during a two-day span on the 6th to the 7th with 1,014 men and women aged 18 and over nationwide, President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating recorded an all-time low of 11%.