'Park must give up power'

By Kim Hyo-jin

President Park Geun-hye is facing growing calls from both opposition and ruling parties to give up efforts to hold onto power.

Opposition parties and political heavyweights renewed their calls, Thursday, for Park to hand over a wide scope of her control over military, diplomatic and domestic affairs to a new prime minister recommended by the National Assembly.

Some ruling party lawmakers joined in bashing Park, saying she should not delay action to normalize state affairs paralyzed by the influence-peddling scandal involving her confidant Choi Soon-sil.

“Park should lay out measures to overcome the leadership vacuum,” said Rep. Kim Moo-sung, former leader of the ruling Saenuri Party. “I recommend that she give up power and cooperate in forming a bipartisan Cabinet, listening to the public.”

The calls grew in parallel with rising concerns about uncertainty in Korea-U.S. relations following the victory of Republican candidate Donald Trump in the U.S. election, Wednesday (KST).

Moon Jae-in, ex-leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and a potential opposition presidential candidate, argued Park should stay away from diplomacy, pointing out that she has lost confidence on the global stage.

“It is high time for South Korea to implement prudent yet active diplomatic and security policies and take the initiative on Korean Peninsula issues,” he said in a Facebook post. “With Park’s lack of confidence in and out of the country, it’s even impossible to engage in close talks with the U.S. She needs to make a decision for the national interest.”

Park has remained hesitant to clarify to what extent she will give up authority and guarantee the new prime minister’s role.

In a move to address a political deadlock triggered by the corruption scandal involving her confidant, she visited National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun, Tuesday, and proposed that if rival parties pick a new prime minister, she would let him or her take “effective control” of the Cabinet.

On the following day, presidential secretary for public relations Bae Sung-rye explained that the new prime minister will be guaranteed the right to manage the Cabinet and to recommend the appointment and dismissal of Cabinet members.

This, however, brought a backlash from the opposition parties. They claimed that Park failed to give up her power because a prime minister can already wield such authority as stipulated in the Constitution. Refusing Park’s offer, the parties vowed to join a civic rally slated for Saturday.

The ruling Saenuri Party leadership struck back, insisting the opposition is virtually calling on Park to step down from her leadership post.

“If the new premier is allowed to govern the administration, I think it’d meet the opposition’s demands,” the party’s floor leader Chung Jin-suk said. “We are worried that the opposition parties just want Park to resign.”

Saenuri Party Chairman Lee Jung-hyun, a close confidant of Park’s, criticized the growing call that she should also give up command of the military and the right to declare martial law, calling it “unconstitutional.”

“If Park does so, it will be against the Constitution,” he said during a party meeting. “I wonder if they seek to entirely stop the administration from functioning.”

With the political arena embroiled in the controversy over the extent of Park’s authority, public sentiment against the incumbent leader is worsening, according to local polls.

In a Realmeter poll conducted Wednesday, 60.4 percent responded that Park should be held accountable either by resignation (18.5 percent) or impeachment (41.9 percent).

Only 18.4 percent of the respondents supported Park’s delegation of control of the administration to a new prime minister recommended by the rival parties. The percentage backing resignation or impeachment has steadily risen from 42.3 percent, Oct. 25, to 55.3 percent, Nov. 2.

The organizers estimated 500,000 participants will join the Saturday rally but the police estimate it will be around 170,000. It is expected to be one of the biggest since the demonstrations in 2008 against U.S. beef imports. The biggest number of protesters a day in a series of the 2008 protests was 80,000 according to police estimates.