President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating on Monday fell to an all-time low, as the incumbent conservative leader has been embroiled in snowballing controversies surrounding his wife Kim Keon Hee, this time due to her alleged peddling of influence in national politics.

Also, with the prosecution's back-to-back decisions to close criminal cases centered on Kim, Yoon's political enemies have accused authorities of taking an increasingly selective approach to justice.

According to Realmeter's poll of 2,510 respondents with voting rights in the third week of October, Yoon's job approval rating came to 24.1 percent, down 1.7 percentage points from the previous week, when the figure already matched an all-time low.

On the other hand, 72.3 percent of respondents disapproved of the way Yoon handled his job as president, which was likewise a new high.

According to Realmeter, Yoon's popularity has hit a low point four times this year alone, including Monday's lowest low.

The pollster also noted in a press release that Yoon's political problems are "taking a turn for the worse" as the prosecution's recent decision to close Kim's criminal cases is rather inviting new political risks for Yoon.

"Now is the time to think about a breakthrough that would be impossible without any sacrifices, given the chilly public feelings and negative public view (toward the Yoon administration)," noted the pollster.

Against this backdrop, Yoon was scheduled to meet Monday afternoon with Han Dong-hoon, chair of the ruling People Power Party.

Prior to the meeting, Han consistently called for a major reshuffle of Yoon's aides as well as an honest explanation from the presidential office concerning any accusation against Kim. Han has also urged Kim to stop making public appearances.

Lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Monday claimed a series of prosecutorial decisions not to pursue criminal cases zeroing in on Kim despite numerous allegations -- including her involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme and her acceptance of a Christian Dior luxury bag contrary to the antigraft law -- are proof that selective justice is at play in South Korea.

During a parliamentary audit Monday, Rep. Lee Geon-tae of the Democratic Party said Kim has "become a symbol of privilege and inconsistent application of due process of law." The ruling party's Rep. Kwak Kyu-taek counterclaimed the opposition is "shaming South Korea's first lady."

The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, the majority of which is controlled by opposition lawmakers, issued a subpoena to Kim on Monday, as she failed to appear at the parliamentary audit as a witness.

The move comes in sync with the Democratic Party's persistent attempts to float a bill to allow a special counsel investigation into Kim, now for a third time. Two similar bills initially passed but were vetoed by Yoon, and neither met the threshold to override the veto.

But the parliament's latest attempt to override the veto indicated an internal fissure of the ruling party. The actual number of votes against the bill in the revote session on Oct. 4 at the National Assembly amounted to 104, fewer than all 108 People Power Party lawmakers in the 300-seat National Assembly.

A revote with 200 votes in favor is required to override a presidential veto of any specific bill.

Meanwhile, revelations of the private conversation between Kim and a former political consultant for Yoon also added fuel to the decline in the president's popularity, Realmeter noted.

The consultant, Myung Tae-kyun, had allegedly sought to influence the ruling People Power Party's electorate candidate nomination process ahead of the April general election. Myung's text messages with Yoon's wife indicated that she was aware of Myung's bid to influence the nomination process, which bore no fruit as then-lawmaker Kim Young-sun dropped out in the middle of the party's process.

Myung, who ran his own company providing presidential election predictions during Yoon's campaign in 2021 and 2022, was also accused of conducting presidential election forecasts while violating the Public Official Election Act.

Later on, a former subordinate of Myung in his election forecast company argued that some of the election predictions were not part of Yoon's campaigning expenses, but instead were funded by Kim Young-sun, who was later elected as a lawmaker in a by-election in 2022. The same figure worked as the lawmaker's aide.

Han said in a party meeting Monday that his conservative party "will not be fooled by such a political broker."