Park Ji-won calls on Democratic Party leadership to resign en masse after local election defeat

Remarks made on MBC Radio's 'Kwon Sun-pyo's News High Kick'

Jung Chung-rae and other party leaders urged to step down

Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Jung Chung-rae sits in thought during a general assembly of lawmakers at the National Assembly on Thursday. [Yonhap]

Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Park Ji-won has urged party leader Jung Chung-rae and the rest of the leadership to resign collectively and pledge not to seek reelection, holding them accountable for the party's performance in the June 3 local elections.

Park made the remarks Wednesday on MBC Radio's "Kwon Sun-pyo's News High Kick." He said President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating had been close to 70 percent before the local elections but had since fallen sharply, and that the People Power Party's approval rating now stood 1.8 percentage points above the Democratic Party's. "Even after seeing this situation, the Democratic Party leadership stays silent, hasn't called a single general assembly and shows no sign of life," he said.

Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Park Ji-won holds a press conference at the National Assembly's communication room in Yeouido, Seoul, on May 4, announcing his candidacy for speaker of the National Assembly. [Yonhap]

Park was blunt in his criticism of the party. "What on earth is the Democratic Party doing?" he said, adding that while President Lee had done genuinely well over the past year — rooting out insurrection and building up to this point — a local election loss could be turned into an opportunity to get back on track. "If you take the path of infighting instead, you're finished," he said.

He said he had warned before the election that if the party failed to revive the struggling livelihoods of ordinary people, complete the reckoning with insurrection and push through three major reforms during the president's second and third years in office — a stretch with no elections for two years — it would pave the way for another Lee Myung-bak, Park Geun-hye or Yoon Again. "The Democratic Party is laying the asphalt for exactly that road," he said.

Park said the party must unite behind President Lee and ensure his success under any circumstances. He added that since the president had already acknowledged the result — saying the party had won arithmetically but suffered a political defeat and felt deflated — the Democratic Party leadership, including Jung, needed to read between the lines. "They need to understand what it means when the president plants a paulownia tree," he said, invoking a Korean idiom about recognizing an implicit signal.

Asked what that idiom meant in this context, Park said simply: "Take responsibility and step down." He added, "You have to know that when the paulownia leaf falls, autumn has arrived." He went on to say that even though Jung had many achievements — leading the impeachment drive, clearing out insurrection and advancing three major reforms — politics works on the principle of a hundred good deeds undone by one mistake. "The public holds politicians accountable for that one mistake," he said.

On the National Election Commission's ballot shortage during the vote, Park said the party had every right to feel aggrieved since the commission is a constitutional body, but that the ruling party inevitably bore the blame for its failures. "To ease public anger even a little, the leadership needed to come out swinging early — convening the National Assembly and showing it meant business," he said.

On the polling results showing the People Power Party overtaking the Democratic Party in support, Park directed his fire squarely at Jung. "A nuclear bomb has gone off at Democratic Party headquarters and he's watching it like a fire across the river, doing nothing," he said. "I think his conscience has grown a coat of fur."

"Everyone is at fault right now," Park said, but added that the symbolic leadership must step down regardless — even if they feel wronged or believe they did nothing wrong. "The public is telling them to go, so they must go. And if the president has assessed things that way, there must be a resonance," he said, again pressing for the leadership's resignation.

Meanwhile, a survey conducted by pollster Jowon C&I on behalf of Straight News from June 6 through June 8 found the Democratic Party's approval rating at 40.4 percent and the People Power Party's at 41.6 percent — a gap of 1.2 percentage points, within the margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points. The poll surveyed 2,000 men and women aged 18 and older nationwide using an automated wireless ARS method.

jshan@heraldcorp.com