Infighting within Korean political parties ― ruling and opposition alike ― is as notorious as fights between rival parties. Yet, the recent brouhaha in the ruling camp and the way it was settled increases skepticism about the Park administration and the Saenuri Party.
Usually, the relationship between the president and the ruling party becomes strained around the end of the chief executive’s term. This is largely because the president ― who serves a single five-year term ― is in the lame-duck stage by that time, while the ruling party is focused on putting up the next leader.
But the recent crisis in the ruling camp took an unusual form ― a confrontation between President Park Geun-hye and Saenuri floor leader Yoo Seong-min ― and came at an unexpected time as Park is now passing the midpoint of her term ending in early 2018.
On the surface, Park seems to have won the fight, as Yoo resigned in respect for a consensus made ― to be exact, induced or enforced ― in a caucus of the Saenuri lawmakers Wednesday.
But Park’s personal verbal attacks against Yoo, which created the ruckus, and the consequent pressure from the pro-Park faction on him to step down only strengthened the president’s public image as an aristocratic leader. To be fair, it is purely undemocratic that the president forces out a ruling party floor leader, who is elected by a vote of lawmakers, because they have different views.
The bigger problem is that Yoo’s exit may not help the party’s rival factions bury the hatchet. On the contrary, the rivalry between the pro-Park and the non-Park factions will most likely escalate as the party chooses Yoo’s successor and the next parliamentary elections draw nearer.
This concern is not unfounded, as many believe that Park began her attacks on Yoo as part of the efforts of the pro-Park faction to recover their power and hegemony ― the pro-Parks lost most recent elections for key party posts ― to get more of them nominated for the upcoming elections.
There were news reports that Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, a key member of the pro-Park group, joined his fellow faction members to make phone calls to Saenuri lawmakers on the eve of the caucus of lawmakers called to determine the fate of Yoo.
As the chief economic policymaker and one of the two deputy prime ministers, it is obvious that his primary concerns should be the economy, the crisis in Greece and the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak. Instead, he was mobilized to rally Saenuri lawmakers behind the pro-Park faction’s push to remove Yoo. This is the sad reality of the Park administration and the Saenuri Party.
