The ruling conservative Saenuri Party’s decision to reinstate controversial defectors has rekindled the factional divide between the pro-presidential leadership and the reformers’ group.
At the heart of the dispute was Rep. Yoo Seong-min, Daegu’s fourth-termer and the party’s former floor leader, known for his deep rift with President Park Geun-hye. Whether or not he would make it back to the party has been considered a yardstick of Saenuri’s willingness to overcome the chronic strife between the pro-Park and the non-Park factions.
Kim Hee-ok, chairman of the party’s emergency committee, disappeared from public view on Friday, boycotting not only party affairs but also a scheduled tripartite meeting with Cheong Wa Dae and the Cabinet.
Kim, who has been steering the distressed ruling party for less than a month, is said to be pondering his resignation.
His actions come after the interim leadership’s decision to accept seven independent lawmakers who had defected amid nomination feuds for the April 13 general election.
Of these lawmakers, four including Yoo immediately retrieved their party membership, while the remaining three have yet to submit their applications to the central headquarters.
If all seven return, the ruling party would recover its status as the largest party in the 300-seat National Assembly, with its number of lawmakers rising from 122 to 129.
Pro-Park Saenuri Party members discuss countermeasures against the return of Rep. Yoo Seong-min to the party. (Yonhap)
“The decision was made to respond to the public sentiment as shown in the April 13 election, asking for unity and harmony,” said spokesperson Rep. Ji Sang-wuk after the reinstatement vote.
Party mainstreamers, however, lashed back against the earlier-than-expected return of the defectors.
“I was taken aback by the rash decision,” said pro-Park Rep. Hong Moon-jong in a radio interview Friday.
“I expect floor leader Chung (Jin-suk) to feel responsible for the consequences.”
Rep. Kim Tae-heum, another pro-Park member, described the emergency committee’s decision as a “coup” led by the reformist floor leader and advocated by nonparty members of the committee.
But such protests from the pro-Park clique further deepened infighting with the reformists, who claimed that the pro-Park lawmakers are still caught up in power games.
“The result (to reinstate defectors) was based on a democratic agreement,” said committee member and former party chief spokesperson Rep. Kim Young-woo.
Cheong Wa Dae refrained from commenting on the reinstatement.
“We do not comment on issues which happened within the (Saenuri) party,” said presidential spokesperson Jung Youn-kuk, in response to reporters’ questions.
As for the cancellation of the tripartite meeting, he cited “circumstances of the party,” denying direct causality with the party leadership’s decision to embrace the defectors.
The feud between the presidential office, as well as those close to the president, and Rep. Yoo traces back to last year, when then-floor leader Yoo advocated an opposition-backed revision bill of the National Assembly law. President Park Geun-hye, upon vetoing the bill later, laid the blame on Yoo for being “untrue.”
After being excluded from nomination for the April race in his Daegu electorate, where he would have been guaranteed an easy win, Yoo defected from the party to run as an independent candidate.
Not only did the senior lawmaker score victory, but his image as a political martyr and an uncompromising reformer placed him in the list of potential bidders for the 2017 presidential election.
According to local pollster Realmeter on Friday, Yoo’s approval rating stood at 15.7 percent, running second among conservative potential candidates, behind U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)