Ruling party losing steam in Moon bashing

By Kim Hyo-jin

The Ruling Saenuri Party is struggling to continue its offensive against Moon Jae-in, a potential opposition party presidential candidate, over a controversial abstention from a United Nations vote on North Korea’s human rights in 2007.

It has been over a week since the ruling party vowed to get to the bottom of the controversy over former Foreign Minister Song Min-soon’s claim that Moon supported an idea of seeking Pyongyang’s opinion before abstaining from the vote.

The Saenuri Party has accused Moon of being in league with the North, demanding a parliamentary hearing, investigation, or independent counsel to clarify the scandal. But without the opposition’s consent, these options appear to be inapplicable.

The party’s investigation committee, set up ambitiously after the controversy arose, has been stagnant in developing the allegation against Moon with no physical evidence.

It initially called for access to presidential records ― Cheong Wa Dae’s minutes in this case ― to figure out whether Song’s claim was true. The call is, however, losing steam amid brewing concerns among party members that it could leave a false precedent for a ruling party to do so.

There is little possibility anyway that opposition parties would cooperate in seeking this move, which needs a two-thirds in favor parliamentary vote of sitting lawmakers. The vote is the only way to access Cheong Wa Dae’s records related to military, diplomatic and unification issues, according to a law on the management of presidential records.

The party is instead seeking to obtain related documents from seven government ministries including foreign affairs and unification. It is still doubtful if the documents can provide crucial evidence that Moon was involved in seeking the North’s approval.

In the face of such hurdles, party members continue to verbally attack the former opposition leader, questioning his ideological stance toward North Korea.

The strategy, however, does not seem to be working in the party’s favor.

A Gallup poll, conducted from Oct. 18 to 20 when the partisan wrangling over the scandal reached its peak, showed that the approval rating of the main opposition party stood at 29 percent, equaling that of the Saenuri Party.

It was the highest rate for the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) among polls conducted this year and the first tie with the Saenuri Party under the Park Geun-hye government.

The DPK’s approval rating increased 3 percentage points while the Saenuri’s rose by 1 percentage point from the previous week.

That of the President fell to a record low 25 percent, reflecting that an offensive against Moon did not successfully divert public attention from the ongoing corruption scandal involving Park’s confidant.

A member of the Saenuri Party’s investigation committee admitted difficulties in prolonging the controversy over the 2007 vote.

“Now that it has become a sort of truth game, Moon needs to express his opinion anyhow. But with him remaining silent, we are having trouble in stretching our argument,” he said.

Moon has declined to give a direct answer to the allegations. Instead, he has criticized that the Saenuri Party is merely engaging in ideological mud-slinging in an effort to overshadow the corruption scandals involving presidential aides.