'Thanks to joining hands with clear-headed citizens'

'PPP must purge the era of thuggery on its own'

'Message: punish the far right, check Lee Jae Myung, rebuild conservatism'

Han Dong-hoon, winner of the Busan Buk-gu Gap by-election, pumps his fist while embracing a campaign staffer at his Buk-gu election office after his victory was confirmed Thursday. [Yonhap]
Han Dong-hoon, winner of the Busan Buk-gu Gap by-election, pumps his fist while embracing a campaign staffer at his Buk-gu election office after his victory was confirmed Thursday. [Yonhap]

Conservative commentator Cho Gap-je, head of Chogapje.com, said Thursday that People Power Party chairman Jang Dong-hyeok "must now die politically" following independent candidate Han Dong-hoon's come-from-behind victory in the Busan Buk-gu Gap National Assembly by-election, where Han defeated both the ruling and opposition party candidates in a three-way race.

Writing on his Facebook page Thursday, Cho called the result "Han Dong-hoon's great reversal" and said, "Han Dong-hoon, whom they tried so hard to destroy, has come back alive — is it not now time for Jang Dong-hyeok to die politically?"

Cho Gap-je, head of Chogapje.com, attends the opening ceremony of independent candidate Han Dong-hoon's campaign office for the Busan Buk-gu Gap National Assembly by-election on May 10. [Yonhap]
Cho Gap-je, head of Chogapje.com, attends the opening ceremony of independent candidate Han Dong-hoon's campaign office for the Busan Buk-gu Gap National Assembly by-election on May 10. [Yonhap]

Han, a former PPP chairman, had been expelled from the party under Jang's leadership after writing a critical post about former President Yoon Suk Yeol on a party members' message board.

In a separate post on Chogapje.com the same day, Cho argued that while "Jang Dong-hyeok's PPP lost, the real conservatism represented by Oh Se-hoon in the Seoul mayoral race, Han Dong-hoon, and Yoo Eui-dong in the Gyeonggi Province Pyeongtaek B by-election won." He attributed the victories to "cutting ties with Yoon Suk Yeol, Jang Dong-hyeok and Hwang Kyo-ahn and joining hands with clear-headed citizens."

Cho went on to say that "the PPP must also purge the era of thuggery on its own" and delivered a sharp broadside against Jang's faction. He called for a permanent blacklist barring from future nominations those lawmakers who praised Yoon's martial law declaration as "enlightenment," those who treated far-right agitator Jeon Han-gil as a mentor, senior lawmakers who traveled to Busan to heap curses on Han Dong-hoon, and those who colluded with election-fraud conspiracy theorists while knowing the claims were false. "These are colonial bureaucrat-type politicians who attended elite schools, climbed to success, enjoyed the good life, and sold their souls to evil spirits," he said. "Compile a list and permanently bar them from nominations."

He said Han Dong-hoon, Oh Se-hoon and Yoo Eui-dong "won by fighting against the thuggish line of the far-right cult group," while Busan mayoral candidate Park Heong-joon lost because he "could not escape Jang Dong-hyeok's shadow." "Being courageous is the best strategy," Cho added, pinpointing Park's defeat.

On the Seoul mayoral race, in which PPP candidate Oh Se-hoon came from behind to defeat Democratic Party of Korea candidate Jeong Won-oh, Cho said the Lee Jae Myung administration's Starbucks boycott campaign "touched the spirit of the Constitution" and "provoked resistance from individualistic citizens, bringing about a self-inflicted defeat in the Seoul mayoral race." He also predicted that "this election will make it harder for Lee Jae Myung to pursue the withdrawal of his indictment."

"Koreans do not forgive arrogant power," Cho said. "Who in Korea is the most arrogant person right now? That is where the lesson of this election lies. Punish the far right, check Lee Jae Myung, rebuild conservatism — that is the message of this election."

He added, "Long live Korean democracy! Democracy endures its mistakes."


jshan@heraldcorp.com