President Park Geun-hye has seen her approval rating slide sharply since her election as the nation’s first female leader in December. The rating, which peaked at 55 percent shortly after her election victory, declined to 41 percent in a survey conducted last week.

The level of approval was unusually low for a president in office for just a month. Comparable figures for her predecessors were 71 percent for Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung, 60 percent for Roh Moo-hyun and 52 percent for Lee Myung-bak.

Park’s low rating is attributed mainly to a string of bungled personnel appointments and her uncommunicative leadership style, which have brought criticism not only from her opponents but also her supporters. Since last December’s presidential poll, her approval rating has fallen at the steepest pace among voters in support of her ruling Saenuri Party ― from 79 percent to 62 percent.

The plummeting support rate should be taken seriously by Park and her aides as a danger signal. The rating cannot be dismissed merely as a political trapping. Keeping a high level of support is needed to secure momentum for pushing through a new administration’s key policy agenda, especially at its initial stage.

When the approval rating falls below a certain level ― many local political observers here draw it at 40 percent ― a president is likely to see lawmakers in the ruling party become uncooperative with handling administrative matters and the opposition bloc increasingly posing stumbling blocks to the government. Former President Lee’s failure to have a bill on changing the plan for a new administrative town pass through the parliament resulted in part from his loose grip over lawmakers with his approval rating way below 40 percent.

Park has already seen her party members raise their voices against her personal selections and leadership style. The internal discontent was expressed sharply during a workshop attended by key officials from the government, the ruling party and the presidential office over the weekend.

Political observers note some ruling party lawmakers appear to have judged that it would be better for their political future to distance themselves from the president losing her popularity and touch with the public.

It is a worrying sign for Park at a time when her administration is now just beginning to work on key policy tasks. Securing cooperation with ― and if needed, putting pressure on ― lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties is essential to her government coping with economic and security challenges facing the nation. Keeping a high level of support will help make it possible.

As advised repeatedly, Park needs to change the way she makes personnel selections and handles state affairs, meeting more people and hearing more from them to ensure more balance in her judgment. It may be difficult for her to change her way of thinking and attitude gained over her life. This could be overcome through changes in the governing system to delegate more powers to her aides and Cabinet ministers as she promised during her campaign. It should be reminded that any further mistake would exhaust her political capital to an unrecoverable point.