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| Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party, visits a hydrogen fueling station inside a national industrial complex in Wanju, North Jeolla Province, Wednesday. Yonhap |
By Jung Da-min
The leadership of Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential candidate of main opposition People Power Party (PPP), is being called into question, following internal feuds of his election camp during which it is said he took the role of an onlooker rather than that of a mediator.
The weeks-long conflicts between PPP leader Lee Jun-seok and some close aides to Yoon exploded on Monday, when Lee and Rep. Cho Su-jin, who was the public affairs team chief for Yoon's campaign committee, clashed over how to deal with allegations raised against Yoon's wife Kim Keon-hee, accusing her of falsifying information on her resume when applying for visiting professor positions at local universities.
As Cho refused to follow Lee's directions, saying that she only follows orders from Yoon, Lee walked out of the meeting room, according to meeting participants. The following day, Lee held a press conference and announced that he would resign from all positions on the campaign committee, such as co-chairman of the committee, and only hold the party leader position, not participating in any campaign activities.
Cho offered an apology, which Lee did not accept. Hours after Lee's resignation, Cho also resigned from the public affairs team chief post.
But Yoon apparently did not recognize the seriousness of the feud. When asked about the conflict between Lee and Cho during the party meeting, Yoon said, "It is natural that members of a committee or a party have different views … I think this is a part of any democracy."
As the conflict grew, Yoon then said on Tuesday right before Lee's press conference that he told Cho to apologize to Lee, as Lee is the party leader and the standing committee co-chairman.
But criticism rose within and outside of the party against Yoon's role, as he was the one who had to mediate the conflicts.
"Cho said she follows the will of the candidate, but I wonder whether she discussed the matter with the candidate when the situation deteriorated like this in the course of one day, and for what purpose the candidate gave 'the order' to Cho," Lee said during his press conference. The party leader also said that Yoon would have to take full responsibility if the PPP loses in the presidential election, although it would also be a disgrace to the PPP leader himself.
Earlier, before the launch of Yoon's mega election camp on Dec. 6, Yoon also was in conflict with Lee, with the latter boycotting scheduled campaign events in protest against him being excluded from the decision making processes of the campaign committee. The two managed to resolve the conflict at the time, but the new feud between Lee and Cho, and their resignations from their election committee posts, have raised debate over whether or not Yoon has failed to unite members of the election committee and the party.
Adding to criticism of him being unsuitable as a presidential candidate, are his responses to the accusations against his wife of her allegedly falsifying her qualifications for visiting professor jobs at local universities.
When asked about the controversy during an interview with local newspaper Dong-A Ilbo, published Wednesday, Yoon said that he and his wife had "no plan from the beginning" about Kim joining the campaign activities.
He also said that the wife of the president is just a family member and, if elected, he would abolish the organization in Cheong Wa Dae that is in charge of supporting the first lady's activities.
These remarks about his wife implied that he would avoid controversies regarding her, rather than actively address and explain the allegations to the public. They were different from the PPP's plan to have Kim join the campaign at some time during electioneering.
Amid the situation, the support rate gap between Yoon and his rival, Lee Jae-myung, of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has been decreasing. In a Realmeter survey of 1,027 adults conducted on Monday and Tuesday at the request of local broadcaster YTN, 40.1 percent of the respondents supported Yoon, followed by Lee's 37 percent.
As Yoon's support rate dropped by 5.2 percentage points from two weeks ago, and Lee's rate declined by 0.1 percentage point, the gap between the two was 3.1 percentage points, down from 8.2 percentage points. Further details are available at the websites of the survey agencies or of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
