hankyoreh

led by party leader Hwang Woo-yea and floor leader Choi Kyung-hwan

By Seok Jin-hwan, Blue House correspondent and Kim Su-heon, staff reporter

Following Democratic Party lawmaker Jang Ha-na’s statement that she did not accept the results of last December’s presidential election, DP lawmaker and supreme council member Yang Seung-jo attacked President Park Geun-hye on Dec. 9, mentioning the assassination of her father and former president Park Chung-hee. In response, the Blue House and the Saenuri Party (NFP) launched a full-scale counterattack on the opposition party. The agreement reached at the four-party talks (among the leaders of the ruling and main opposition parties) to return to parliament, had seemed to be leading to smoother relations, but now the political situation is rapidly moving toward deadlock once again.

“Former president Park Chung-hee maintained public security and governed the Yushin regime using the weapon known as the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. He probably did not predict his tragic end: that he would be assassinated by the weapon he had made,” said DP council member Yang Seung-jo during the party’s supreme council meeting on Dec. 9.

“Park should take careful heed of this warning. If she maintains new public security and governs under a new Yushin regime using the weapon known as the National Intelligence Service, she could end up walking in the footsteps of [her father] Park Chung-hee,” Yang said.

After Yang’s comments were reported, Blue House public relations secretary Lee Jeong-hyun angrily told reporters that these comments were more than just “off-the-cuff” remarks.

“Yang Seung-jo is a lawyer, a member on the Party’s supreme council, and a multi-term lawmaker. This was not off-the-cuff. If you reporters take this to be off-the-cuff, I will be very disappointed in you,” Lee said.

When a reporter asked Lee whether the Blue House would be taking legal action, Lee got agitated. “Do you think taking legal action is enough? Yang publicly said that the president should be assassinated!” Lee said. When he said “president should be assassinated,” his voice rose and he lost his temper.

When DP lawmaker Hong Ik-pyo referred to Park as the progeny of a monster that should never have been born in July, Lee reacted by calling Hong’s remarks “violent” and “rash” and asking which country’s legislature he was in, but the spokesperson’s response was even harsher this time.

It appears that Lee’s reaction reflects not only his own personal feelings but also the Blue House’s political judgment that it can no longer ignore slander aimed at Park and remarks denying the results of last December’s presidential election.

In line with this, the Saenuri Party ratcheted up the level of its attack. It held a meeting of its supreme council in the morning, an emergency meeting of all party lawmakers in the afternoon, and a closed meeting of its supreme council at which it passed a resolution to urge Yang Seung-jo and Jang Ha-na to resign as lawmakers.

Immediately after the party lawmakers’ meeting, Saenuri Party leader Hwang Woo-yea and other Saenuri lawmakers held a protest on the steps in front of the central hall of the National Assembly building.

“We will take action through the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Ethics to strip Yang Seung-jo and Jang Ha-na of their statuses as lawmakers,” the party members said. They demanded that the Democratic Party immediately submit to three demands: to force the two lawmakers to immediately resign, to offer an official apology and expel the two lawmakers from the party, and to express the party’s official position on comments questioning the validity of the presidential election.

Some political analysts also believe that the Saenuri Party is capitalizing on this situation in order to gain an advantage over the opposition party before the National Intelligence Service (NIS) reform committee begins its activities or in order to distract attention from NIS reform.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]