President Lee Jae Myung speaks at a ruling-opposition-government consultative meeting on livelihood and the economy held at Cheong Wa Dae on April 7. From left: Jung Chung-rae, then-Democratic Party of Korea leader; President Lee; and People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung speaks at a ruling-opposition-government consultative meeting on livelihood and the economy held at Cheong Wa Dae on April 7. From left: Jung Chung-rae, then-Democratic Party of Korea leader; President Lee; and People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok. [Yonhap]

The People Power Party trained its fire on President Lee Jae Myung's reelection prospects Friday after Cheong Wa Dae floated a four-year, two-term presidential system as the preferred direction for constitutional reform, demanding that Lee personally declare he would not seek a second term before any such discussions proceed.

Cheong Wa Dae said Friday that during a golf meeting between President Lee and People Power Party lawmaker Kim Tae-ho, Lee raised the need for constitutional reform to restructure the distribution of power. "We share the view that the imperial presidential system is problematic," the presidential office said, adding that Lee believes "a four-year, two-term presidency with strengthened National Assembly powers commands the broadest public acceptance."

PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok pushed back sharply. "That is the last thing President Lee Jae Myung should be saying," Jang said. "Has there ever been an 'imperial' president in our history quite like Lee Jae Myung?"

In a Facebook post Friday, Jang said Lee had "dismantled the entire judicial system of the Republic of Korea to make his own trials disappear," ignored public opinion on real estate and stock market policy, and pressed ahead with the abolition of supplementary investigative powers and the merger of military academies despite widespread opposition. "Let me say it again: the precondition for constitutional reform is simple," Jang said. "President Lee Jae Myung need only declare himself that he will serve just one term."

Floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik also took to Facebook to criticize the move. "It was not long ago that National Assembly Speaker Jo Jeong-sik floated the idea of a two-term amendment that would allow the incumbent president to seek reelection — and was roundly condemned for it," Jeong said. "Now Cheong Wa Dae itself has stepped forward to make the push for a two-term amendment explicit."

Jeong said that no matter what modifiers Cheong Wa Dae attached to the proposal — "power-sharing," "the problem of the imperial presidency," "strengthening the Assembly's authority" — the substance was the same. "This is an attempt at a jailbreak-style constitutional revision aimed at breaking through the president's judicial risk by rewriting the constitution," he said.

Chief spokesperson Park Chung-kwon said in a statement that the administration had "abruptly floated a four-year, two-term system to shift the political agenda" after public approval collapsed under the weight of policy failures and a deteriorating livelihood economy. "Without reflecting on its own imperial style of governance and imperial refusal to communicate, the administration is now blaming the system and calling for a restructuring of the power structure — a clear case of putting the cart before the horse," Park said.

Park added that constitutional revision "is not a card to be played for the political needs of a president or a particular administration to change the subject." "What stands out is not any genuine effort to build national consensus, but a political calculation aimed at breaking through a collapse in approval ratings and a tangle of governance failures," he said.


mp1256@heraldcorp.com