Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at the finance desk of The Korea Times, focuses primarily on economic policy and government agencies, mainly covering the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Budget and Planning, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service. She previously covered financial authorities, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and earlier worked on the political, city and business desks, reporting on a wide range of issues.
DUP to change name to Democratic Party
By Jun Ji-hye
The main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) plans to change its name back to the Democratic Party, its original title before putting “United” in its name in December 2011.
“We unanimously approved of referring the meeting agenda to decide whether to pull out ‘United’ from our title to the national convention slated for May 4,” said Rep. Kim Sung-gon, chairman of the national convention preparatory committee, Monday.
After the committee’s meeting, Kim told reporters, “Until now, people generally have called the DUP by its abbreviated name, Democratic Party, anyway. Plus, many often confuse the DUP with other parties such as the Unified Progressive Party.”
The move, however, is expected to cause internal conflict as it was mostly those who follow the legacy of late President Roh Moo-hyun that played a major role in adopting the name of the DUP.
The DUP was officially launched in December 2011 after then Democratic Party combined members of Federation of Korea Trade Unions and another civic group called Innovation and Unification.
Pro-Roh figures then took a central place in Innovation and Unification, calling on liberal forces to be united.
Regarding this, Kim said, “It has been a year and a half since we unified civic group members. I believe we already formed a whole.”
Along with the proposed change of the party’s title, the committee agreed to push forward with adopting an ideologically-moderate line as a party platform in the national convention.
The move includes refraining from using such strong language as “complete reexamination” when referring to the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA), which is seen as an attempt to attract middle-of-the road voters.
Rep. Lee Yong-sup, who is bidding to assume the top post of the party at the convention, expressed his desire to join the move, saying, “FTA is an inevitable way for Korea, which depends highly on foreign trade. I am not calling for abrogating the agreement. I just want revision in a direction of helping national interest.”
However, such a move increases the likelihood of further conflict as some DUP members, especially among younger factions, claim the party has to maintain its progressive stance.