Saenuri breakup imminent

40 lawmakers may quit Saenuri this week

By Kim Hyo-jin

About 40 lawmakers are likely to quit the ruling Saenuri Party this week to form a new conservative bloc following a nasty power struggle with loyalists of President Park Geun-hye.

Rep. Hwang Young-cheul, a spokesman for the party’s anti-Park faction, said Tuesday patience was running out among Park dissenters.

“It is time to make a decision. We share a consensus that we cannot go along with Park’s followers,” Hwang said at a press conference.

The remarks came after a heated debate between the rival factions in a general meeting over how to form an interim leadership.

The anti-Park faction earlier gave an “ultimatum” to Park loyalists, saying the anti-Park ex-floor leader Rep. Yoo Seong-min should lead the party and be given full authority over affairs in the fallout of the corruption scandal involving the President.

But the loyalist faction refused this, insisting a figure from outside the party should be chosen otherwise factional strife could worsen.

In the face of rising tension, Park loyalist Rep. Chung Woo-taik, floor leader and acting chairman of the party, said he will take two to three days listening to the rival factions to reach a final decision.

“I will mull over if Yoo can be a leader seeking party unity and reform while raising the chances of the party’s victory in the next presidential election, through various channels,” Chung told reporters after the meeting.

“I will be waiting for anti-Park lawmakers to suggest a brilliant figure with a mind open toward party outsiders. I still believe there is some outside figure who can save the party, who does not come from among incumbent lawmakers.”

Following the remarks, the rival faction held an emergency meeting and decided to formulate a plan to leave the party.

In the press conference, Rep. Hwang argued, “We take Chung’s comments as a dismissal of our suggestion of installing Yoo as head of the emergency planning committee.”

If Yoo, considered a potential presidential candidate in the ruling bloc, leaves the party along with Kim Moo-sung, the de-facto leader of the anti-Park faction, the number of lawmakers who will defect from the party could reach up to 30 or 40, according to party officials.

Yoo earlier said he is considering giving up his membership.

“I will wait for the party’s official stance on the interim leader position first, then announce my decision. I haven’t decided yet. But I and my fellow anti-Park lawmakers are contemplating the possibility of breaking off from Park’s supporters,” he said.

The two rival factions have tussled for party hegemony in the wake of the presidential corruption scandal and the resulting impeachment of Park.

After the victory of Chung, a pro-Park candidate, in the floor leader election last week, the anti-Park lawmakers have pushed to secure the remaining leadership posts.

The party is expected to form an emergency planning committee, an interim leadership tasked with salvaging the party from the presidential corruption scandal until the next national convention.

Park loyalists, for their part, strived to block Yoo from getting the post. In an apparent effort not to give the anti-Park faction justification for calling for the leadership post, they disbanded an intra-party gathering of loyalists earlier in the day.

Rep. Jeong Kab-yoon, a Park loyalist who led the group, said, targeting Yoo, “It is difficult to understand how some lawmakers make their image of being a savior of the party while avoiding common responsibility for the corruption scandal.”

Park loyalists have remained disgruntled with former floor leader Yoo, who had been an open critic of Park’s policies. Park once slammed Yoo for his "politics of betrayal." Opposing the idea of Yoo’s interim leadership, Kim Jin-tae, a Park loyalist, called Yoo "a figure who has lost the confidence" of party members.

The anti-Park lawmakers including Yoo were key to the passage of the impeachment motion against Park, Dec. 9. They have insisted the pro-Park leadership chaired at the time by Lee Jung-hyun and comprised of other loyalists step down from frontline party politics, taking responsibility for Park’s botched state administration.

After a longstanding tug-of-war, Lee and Supreme Council members resigned on the day Chung was elected.