A group of Grand National Party lawmakers demanding drastic change in the party and the government toned down its complaints to stand in line with former chairwoman Park Geun-hye.

“Policy reforms should come first,” they said during a luncheon on Wednesday. They thus expressed support for Park, who gave positive assessment on Tuesday to the group’s reform efforts.

“Reform should above all be about getting in touch with the people,” she told reporters. “The reformative members’ claim is worth listening to.”

Earlier on Sunday, a group of 25 GNP lawmakers delivered a letter to Cheong Wa Dae, urging the presidential office to apologize for its policy failure and also blaming the party’s leadership for the by-election result.

Some of the key members also claimed that the party should replace a large portion of the current lawmakers with political rookies.

However, they eased up somewhat on their stance, facing the need to get in line with Park.

During the party’s special meeting to brainstorm renovation strategies on Monday, the group apologized for acting rashly in delivering the disputed letter and causing controversies.

“We apologize that the given processes were not as appropriate as they should have been,” said Reps. Kim Song-sik and Jeong Tae-keun, offering to resign from the party’s policy committee vice chairman post.

“We should have taken more time and consideration in gathering various opinions within the party, before making the move.”

Rep. Chung Doo-un, head of the party’s policy think tank the Yoido Institute, also offered his apologies.

During the meeting, other members also spoke in favor of Park’s ideas.

“Our party came to face the current crisis because it failed to fulfill the basic values as a leading conservative party, such as job creation and economic growth,” said Rep. Lee Jong-heuk.

“We are to focus on fundamental policies and meet the people’s expectations in order to achieve reform.”

However, Rep. Chung Mong-joon yet maintained his claim that the party should first reshuffle most of its core members in order to renovate itself, despite the backlashes from the pro-Park group.


By Bae Hyun-jung
(tellme@heraldcorp.com)