Newly elected ruling party leader likely to focus on joint governance
Newly elected leader rep. Lee Hae-chan of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea waves a party flag after he was appointed as the party leader through a party convention at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, Saturday. / Yonhap
By Park Ji-won
Rep. Lee Hae-chan, the newly elected leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) who is expected to shoulder a wide range of responsibilities as a veteran politician, will likely focus on inter-party cooperation for his first task.
The seven-term lawmaker and former prime minister made it clear he will organize a five-party meeting to come up with measures to tackle the problems plaguing the economy.
“First of all, I will focus on seeking stability in the people's economy,” Lee said during his acceptance speech Saturday. “In order to do so, I will continue to have conversations with opposition parties sincerely.”
Driving the point, President Moon Jae-in asked for party cooperation as he called to congratulate Lee so that legislators may accompany the President to the pending third Korea summit to be held in Pyongyang.
In terms of Assembly composition the ruling party is in need of the opposition parties' cooperation to pass the Cheong Wa Dae-led bills. As the DPK has 129 seats out of 299 at the Assembly, it needs an additional 20 seats from other parties.
The opposition parties released statements saying they welcome the appointment of Lee, but asked him to take responsibility as the ruling party amid a sluggish job market.
However, it might be tough to integrate opposition forces as they have been critical about the government's economic policy, insisting on aborting it.
Opposition parties have intensified their criticism against the government's income-led growth policy in recent weeks. They blamed its minimum wage hikes for sluggish hiring and investments.
Meanwhile, amid falling support rate of the DPK and President Moon Jae-in, the party was also in a need of a strong leadership in the second year of Moon's administration. The DPK's approval rate hit a record high of 57 percent but has continued to fall to around 40 percent, in recent weeks.
He is expected to unify the fractionized party, which was divided into pro-Moon faction and others during the party primary to elect the leader, to exercise strong leadership and win the 2020 general elections accordingly.
He has been criticized for being hard to communicate with inside. Recently, he has been criticized for his rare public presence with media and insiders.
He explained that there was no need to have communicated frequently with reporters and party members as he was not a frontline, but some criticized him for not being active in engagement with others in general.
To tackle that, he pledged to make the party's nomination system transparent and bottom-up.