President Moon Jae-in and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol met for the first time on Monday, following weeks of tension and the postponement of a previously scheduled meeting at the last minute, according to reports.

The conference took held 19 days after the presidential election, which was the longest period of time between meetings in the history of the organization. Their originally scheduled meeting had been postponed.

The meeting on Monday was the first in 21 months since Yoon visited Cheong Wa Dae to join the Anti-Corruption Policy Council in 2020, when he was the prosecutor general of South Korea. As a result of her investigation against former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, who was a close adviser to Moon, the former top prosecutor, who was handpicked by Moon for the position, has been at conflict with Moon.

Because of growing public outcry about the mounting tensions between Yoon and Moon, as well as Yoon's declining poll numbers, the two sides agreed to meet at long last and demonstrate their willingness to work.

At 5:59 p.m., Yoon arrived at Cheong Wa Dae, and Moon welcomed him outside the building as a courtesy. For supper, they went to Sangchunjae, which is where state guests are welcomed and where unofficial meetings are held.

Yoo Young-min, the President's Chief of Staff, and Yoon's Chief of Staff, Jang Je-won, were both in attendance at the meeting.

The two sides stated that they intended to conduct a "candid" conversation without a predetermined agenda, but it was expected that a wide range of topics would be discussed.

Yoon informed reporters a few hours before the meeting that "we may talk about people's livelihoods or certain security matters" would be discussed.

An additional 50 trillion won ($40 billion) supplementary budget for fighting COVID-19, one of Yoon's core pledges, as well as a pardon for former President Lee Myung-bak and a reserve cash for relocating the presidential office to Yongsan were all scheduled to be discussed during the meeting.

Yoon's persistent decline in popularity ratings may have played a role in his choice to meet with Moon in the midst of simmering tensions.

According to the survey findings released on Monday, the negative view for Yoon's government performance has overtaken the favorable outlook for the first time in a week.

According to the results of a study conducted by the polling organization Realmeter of 2,512 persons aged 18 or older across the country from March 21-25 at the request of Mediaherald, 46 percent of respondents believed Yoon would "do well," while 49.6 percent said he would "perform badly."

A poll conducted by the same business in the second week of March revealed that 52.7 percent of respondents believed he would do well, but this figure dropped to 49.2 percent in the third week of March.

At the same time, 41.2 percent of respondents predicted that Yoon would perform poorly in the second week of March, with that figure climbing to 45.6 percent the following week.

The approval ratings of previous presidents were often in the upper 70s to 80s percent range during the interval between election victory and inauguration.

People's perception of Yoon has been badly influenced by his efforts to relocate the presidential office, as well as his continuous confrontations with the Moon Jae-in administration.

The Yoon administration has been at odds with Moon's administration since the election on a number of topics, including the move of Cheong Wa Dae to the Defense Ministry building and the hiring of senior public employees.

His administration, concerned about a "security vacuum," announced his decision to relocate Cheong Wa Dae by May 10 a week after winning the election, claiming that the president's intention is more important than public polls. He also engaged in public spats with Moon's administration, which was also concerned about a "security vacuum." A second source of contention was Moon's vehement objection to Yoon's nomination of high-ranking officials, including the Bank of Korea governor, which led to the extraordinary cancellation of the first meeting between Yoon and the president-elect.

When asked about President-elect Yoon's extraordinarily low approval ratings, which have yet to be revealed, Yoon's spokesman Kim Eun-hye responded on Monday that they will keep the ratings in mind and "serve the people with a more modest and lower attitude." Yoon has not yet taken office.

The same poll revealed that President Moon's approval rating had increased to 46.7 percent, an increase of four percentage points from the previous survey. The negative evaluation dropped by 3.5 percentage points to 50.7 percent, according to the survey.

The Democratic Party received the highest approval rating, 42.7 percent, representing an increase of 1.4 percentage points from the previous survey. The People's Power Party's approval rating declined by 0.7 percentage point to 40 percent in the latest poll.