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.
NPAD in chaos amid leadership vacuum
By Jun Ji-hye
Rep. Moon Jae-in
By Jun Ji-hye
Rep. Park Young-sun
The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) is in chaos, with interim leader Rep. Park Young-sun driven into a corner.
The leadership of Park, chairwoman of the largest opposition party’s emergency planning committee, was severely damaged following two failures to push through a special Sewol bill designed to establish a fact-finding committee to investigate April’s man-made ferry disaster.
With former co-chairmen Reps. Ahn Cheol-soo and Kim Han-gil resigning early in August to take responsibility for the crushing defeat at the July 30 by-elections, the chairwoman was set to become de facto party leader until an NPAD national convention scheduled for early next year.
In an effort to resolve the leadership crisis, Park, also a floor leader, planned to invite two outsiders to lead the emergency committee as co-chairmen while she remained floor leader.
But this foundered on Friday amid opposition from senior party members, pushing Park into a corner.
Reps. Moon Jae-in and Park Jie-won, along with other seniors, questioned Park’s selection of Lee Sang-don, professor emeritus at Chung-Ang University and a former member of the ruling Saenuri Party’s emergency committee, as a co-chairman. They claim Lee is too conservative to lead the opposition.
In response, Park argued that her other selection, Ahn Kyong-whan, an emeritus professor at Seoul National University, was a liberal-minded scholar. But the NPAD decided against appointing the two professors.
“Park and party seniors agreed to discuss the issue related to the emergency committee again at a later date,” spokesman Rep. Park Soo-hyun said late Friday.
The withdrawal of the plan resulted in a blame game played out between Park and Moon.
Park said that Moon had changed his position, although he initially agreed to invite Prof. Lee. Park’s aides claimed the three held a meeting ahead of Park’s announcement of the plan to recruit outsiders.
But Moon’s aides said he had never approved the appointment.
“Moon told Park of his concerns about the appointment of Lee,” said Rep. Yun Ho-jung, a close confidant of Moon, Saturday. “He made it clear that a considerable number of party members were likely to refuse to accept the conservative professor.”
Yun also denied Park’s claim that the three had held a meeting.
The battle is expected to intensify further because Prof. Lee also claimed that the three did have a meeting, and that Moon indicated he would agree to recruit the professor.
Amid the ongoing confusion, some hard-line lawmakers have called on Park to step down as floor leader and as chairwoman of the emergency committee.
“I understand that Park has mixed feelings, but it is the time for her to make a decision,” said three-term lawmaker Kang Gi-jung.
The chaos has increased the likelihood that the party could hold a national convention earlier than scheduled in order to resolve the crisis as soon as possible. Potential hopefuls for the party presidency are already positioning themselves.
Rep. Moon, former presidential candidate of the now-defunct Democratic Party and former chief of staff under late President Roh Moo-hyun, is expected to challenge for the party presidency, representing Roh supporters.
Rep. Chung Sye-kyun is expected to run, embracing centrists, while Rep. Park Jie-won is set to represent supporters of late president, Kim Dae-jung. Park was chief of staff in Kim’s administration.
Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye