The captain and the crew have been chosen with much fanfare. But where is the ship? That is the question critics are asking following President-elect Park Geun-hye’s latest rounds of Cabinet appointments over the weekend.

Park’s sweeping government reorganization plan, parts of which call for establishing three new government ministries, has yet to pass the National Assembly as required by South Korean law. Park nevertheless made nominations to head non-existing ministries. 

“Please, I beg you. Please help the new government get established,” pleaded Lee Jyung-hyun, a senior official in the Saenuri Party and one of Park’s closest confidants, at the National Assembly on Monday.

The sight reflects the troubled state of Park’s transition team and the amount of political capital wasted.

A survey of public opinion by the polling agency Realmeter found that Park’s approval rating showed a consistent drop over the past three weeks, decreasing from 65.9 percent in the last week of January to 61.3 percent this week.

Another poll by Gallup Korea conducted from Jan. 4-Jan. 7 found Park’s favorable approval rating at 48.0 percent ― the lowest of any incoming administration in recent memory. In the same poll, the DUP showed a 4 percent increase in its approval rating compared to the previous week, standing at 27.0 percent.

The DUP opposes several key elements of Park’s plan to overhaul the central government. Park has called for transferring the powers to shape public broadcasting policies to a proposed ministry on science and technology from Korea Communications Commission.

The DUP and several civic groups have protested the move on the grounds that it would provide a convenient tool for the government to rein in public broadcasting.

The DUP has also called for an anti-corruption agency that would be tasked with investigating high-ranking government officials and close confidants of the President. Park had pledged as a presidential candidate to introduce reforms in the prosecution, and the DUP’s demands reflect the promises Park made as a candidate.

The DUP and Park also clashed over the status of the presidential security agency. Park is in favor of making the head of the security agency equal in power with other government ministries, but the DUP has called such a proposal a throwback to the era of her father, late President Park Chung-hee, who had utilized the state security apparatus to intimidate opposition political figures.

With less than a week left until Park’s inauguration, senior members from the DUP and the Saenuri Party struggled to pass the restructuring plan Monday but ultimately failed to reach an agreement.

The DUP took affront that Park went ahead and named prospective nominees to ministries whose very creation was under debate at the National Assembly.

“Whether (President-elect Park) is trying to eliminate room for negotiation (over the restructuring bill) or telling the opposition party to give up, it is very unfortunate and depressing,” said DUP’s floor leader Park Ki-choon in a press briefing.

By Samuel Songhoon Lee (songhoon@heraldcorp.com)