Opposition leader drops plan to leave party

Rep. Park Young-sun, floor leader of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, looks pensive after a news conference at the National Assembly, Wednesday, where she announced that she would not quit the main opposition party. / Yonhap

By Kang Seung-woo

The floor leader of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), Park Young-sun, dropped her “threat” to quit not only her job but also to leave the party, Wednesday.

The former television anchorwoman remained in seclusion for two days after her party colleagues attempted to thwart her decision to pick a former ruling party advisor to co-lead the party’s emergency committee.

"I am sorry for causing much concern at a critical moment," Park said during a news conference at the National Assembly. "I agonized over whether to leave the NPAD, but I decided to return at the request of the party's elders who asked me to save the party."

Park has been serving as de facto party leader, after former Co-Chairmen Ahn Cheol-soo and Kim Han-gil stepped down last month to take responsibility for a crushing defeat in the July 30 by-elections.

However, her leadership was hit hard due to two failed attempts to push through a special bill in the National Assembly to investigate the April 16 sinking of the ferry Sewol. Although the NPAD twice struck a deal with the ruling Saenuri Party, the agreements were rejected by the relatives of the ferry victims.

In addition, her failed bid to recruit two outsiders ― professors Lee Sang-don and Ahn Kyung-hwan ― to lead the emergency committee as co-chairmen put her deeper into political hot water because Lee previously served as a member of the governing party's emergency committee.

As a result, 15 lawmakers of the NPAD called on her to resign Sunday in order to take responsibility "for causing chaos in the party leadership."

Park said she would step down from the head of the party.

"I will quit the job," she said. "I will hold a meeting with the party's former and incumbent leadership to discuss how to form an emergency committee," she said.

Park also pledged to assume responsibility and try her best to push the special Sewol bill through parliament.

"After collecting opinions from party members, we will engage in negotiations," she said.

She also used the press conference to criticize President Park Geun-hye for her rejection of the demand by the victims' families for a special investigative committee to be given extrajudicial authority.

"It was absurd for President Park to give an ultimatum to the National Assembly and it indicates that Cheong Wa Dae was behind the ruling party in the negotiations for the special bill," she said.

Due to the infighting, the NPAD's aproval rating fell below 20 percent to 19.5 percent, last week according to local pollster Realmeter ― for the first time since it was founded in March ― before returning to 22.8 percent Monday.

In the wake of the declining support, she promised a complete overhaul inside the NPAD.

"The NPAD is in dire extremes. We need to constantly reform ourselves," she said.