President Park Geun-hye should not have been surprised by the result of an opinion poll released Friday, which showed her approval rating had plunged to the lowest level since she took office in February 2013. The survey conducted by Gallup Korea of 1,002 adult Koreans found that 55 percent of respondents disapproved of the way Park has been handling her work while 35 percent expressed satisfaction with her performance.

The low rating was seen mainly as a public backlash against her New Year news conference held days earlier, in which her approach to coping with a string of scandals involving her aides revealed how detached she was from public sentiment. In the nationally televised press conference, Park refused to dismiss three key aides accused of exercising excessive influence over state affairs, describing them as hard-working.

Those polled mostly reacted negatively to Park’s news conference, especially to her decision not to fire the three assistants.

In view of her characteristics, the president might not have attached much meaning to the outcome of the poll, perhaps believing her approval rating would improve again as it has in the past. But it is an ominous sign for her that her support rate slipped below 50 percent for the first time among voters in their 50s and in the city of Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang Province. They have formed a key constituency for Park and losing their support could raise her chances of being dragged into early lame-duck status as she enters her third year of office.

Park might have hoped to make a fresh start by putting an end to scandals involving her aides and resolving to push for a broad range of reforms in her news conference. But it now seems that the occasion has only served to strengthen her image as an “uncommunicative” leader who refuses to listen to others and sticks to what she believes to be right. In the eyes of many, Park appeared to be saying only what she wanted to say, rather than what they wanted to hear from her, throughout the news conference.

Giving this impression, she failed to draw due public attention and support to her key policy tasks. Few people would deny she has taken the right direction by pledging to push for reform in the public sector, labor, education and finance in order to help revive the sluggish economy. But she needs broad public support in order to implement the drastic reform measures due to resistance from vested interests.

Park also needs to be in sync with the public sentiment to move ahead with her initiatives to improve inter-Korean relations. If Park’s administration appears to be estranged from the people, the North Korean regime may feel less interested in making deals with it or may be led to demand excessive concessions.

Her plummeting approval rating will also increase challenges from within the ruling party. The presence of a main opposition party more unpopular with the public ― its support rate has remained slightly over 20 percent in the past years ― can be no reason for her to feel secure.

She urgently needs to restore public confidence if she hopes to make her presidency successful by pushing for her reform agenda and inter-Korean dialogue. The worsening public sentiment following last week’s news conference clearly showed that adhering to her position is not the answer. Time is not on her side.