People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok drew a line Friday between his recent remarks on permanently banning serious anti-party offenders from rejoining the party and independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon, saying Han "was expelled for criminal conduct, not for anti-party conduct."
Speaking on the YouTube channel of Newdaily TV that day, Jang said he hoped those who interpreted his remarks on permanent reinstatement bans as targeting Han would "think carefully about whether that applies to themselves."
Earlier, at a closed-door supreme council meeting on Monday, Jang was reported to have said that "for serious anti-party conduct, permanent bans on rejoining the party must be enforced, even if that requires revising the party charter and rules." The remarks sparked widespread speculation in political circles about who they were aimed at.
On the party's Central Ethics Committee recently launching disciplinary discussions against certain lawmakers, Jang cautioned against reading too much into the move.
"I have never specifically said we should discipline this person or that person," he said. "I have not set any standard calling for expulsion or suspension of membership rights." He rebuffed those who argued he should not single out individuals for discipline, saying he found it "hard to agree" with anyone making such claims "to attack" him.
Jang also pushed back directly against criticism from some within the party that he was practicing "subtraction politics" — a term for moves seen as shrinking the party's base.
"The person who shoots at their own side is the biggest minus of all — there is no greater subtraction than that," he said. He added that removing those who engage in anti-party conduct was the right course of action, and that calling such moves "subtraction politics" was itself "the true subtraction politics."
Jang shrugged off calls from some within the party for him to step down as leader. Asked about the possibility of running in the next presidential election, he said he believed "it is ultimately the party members and the people who decide the direction a politician should take and what they should do," adding that if members called for him to open an era of member sovereignty and rebuild the conservative camp, he would "stand firm in his position and work toward rebuilding conservatism, even if some lawmakers are calling for my resignation."
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