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| Saenuri Party lawmakers not aligned with President Park Geun-hye hold a meeting to discuss how to deal with the fallout from a scandal involving President Park Geun-hye's confidant Choi Soon-sil, at the National Assembly, Monday. They urged Park loyalists to step down from the party's leadership posts. / Yonhap |
Saenuri chairman refuses to step down
By Kim Hyo-jin
Loyalists to President Park Geun-hye who control the ruling Saenuri Party are facing mounting calls to step down from their party posts over the influence-peddling scandal involving Park's confidant Choi Soon-sil.
About 50 lawmakers who do not support Park held an emergency meeting and called on the party leadership to resign as part of its efforts to deal with the fallout from the power-related scandal.
But party Chairman Lee Jung-hyun refused the call, saying he would focus on addressing the situation first.
The looming power struggle overshadows the ruling party's efforts to overcome the worst-ever political scandal.
"Up to 54 lawmakers have already agreed to call for the resignation of the leadership," Rep. Hwang Young-cheul said in a briefing after the emergency meeting, noting they will gather more lawmakers to issue a joint statement against the current leadership. The Saenuri Party has a total of 129 lawmakers.
Hwang said most lawmakers expressed strong discontent with the leadership for failing to prevent the influence-peddling scandal.
Politics in the nation has been thrown into chaos since media reports that Choi, who does not hold any official position, has been involved in editing presidential speeches and had access to confidential government documents.
The party leadership has urged the President to conduct a full-scale personnel reshuffle and a thorough investigation of the scandal but remained cautious of changing the party's power structure.
"It's impossible for Cheong Wa Dae to regain its leadership. This is why it is so important to renew the party leadership in the meantime," said Rep. Na Kyung-won, an ex-chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs and Unification committee of the National Assembly.
Rep. Kim Moo-sung, the party's former chairman, agreed, saying, "The party should have laid out reform measures but it seems the members of the leadership are being too complacent."
However, pro-Park lawmakers stood against such calls, accusing lawmakers not aligned with Park of having the intention to take control of the party.
"It's not the time to disrupt the party leadership," a lawmaker affiliated with Park, said. "The leadership has stepped up seeking measures to mend the situation. If they keep raising the offensive against fellow lawmakers, we cannot help but question what their underlying intention is."
Later in the day, Chairman Lee expressed his clear opposition to the rising call.
"The ruling party's accountability is grave in this situation," he told reporters. "No leadership member including me is dwelling on the post. We just hope to fully focus on dealing with the fallout."
Amid brewing factional strife, lawmakers with the party's official positions — Kim Hyun-ah, a spokeswoman, and Oh Shin-hwan, the party's PR director — stepped down from their posts in protest against the pro-Park party leadership.
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