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Liberty Korea Party leader Hwang Kyo-ahn at a party gathering at the National Assembly on Mar. 18. (Kim Gyoung-ho

Liberty Korea Party (LKP) leader Hwang Kyo-ahn has been pouring energy into a partisan attack as he slaps the leftist label on a major drive in the legislature. Critics say that the leader of South Korea’s number-one opposition party is kindling an “ideological war” with his aggressive remarks.

During an LKP event at the National Assembly on Mar. 19 for ceremonially appointing new party staff and for preparations for the upcoming Apr. 3 by-elections, Hwang attacked the tentative agreement on electoral system reform reached by the ruling party and other three opposition parties. “They’re scheming to sneak large numbers of a leftist ‘red guard’ party into the National Assembly so that the left-wing government can keep its grip on power,” Hwang argued.

“At this very moment, the Moon administration is completely focused on a leftist scheme in political engineering without paying any thought to gaining the people’s support by improving their livelihood.”

Hwang lambasted the proposed electoral system reform – which is focused on allocating seats in the National Assembly according to the party vote – by alleging that it’s designed to slip a “leftist ‘red guard’ party” into the National Assembly, in an oblique reference to the Justice Party.

“The core of the Moon administration are student activists from the 1980s. These people are positioned in various parts of our society – including the political establishment, the leftist press, civil society and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions – where they’re blocking the innovation and ideas needed by a new generation,” Hwang wrote on a post on his Facebook page on Tuesday morning.

The designation of the electoral reform bill for the fast track process, Hwang said, “is nothing more than a dark conspiracy to create an environment in which they can survive.”

“When the roots are rotten, flowers don’t bloom. The roots need to be pulled up,” he said.

During a joint meeting of party lawmakers and local committee chairs on Monday, Hwang described “the minority left-wing opposition parties as a ‘red guard’ oppressing the patriotic right wing” and contended that a proposed agency to investigate criminal activity by senior officials would become “a vanguard in crushing the patriotic right wing.”

Hwang’s harsh remarks appear to reflect his intention for the by-elections on Apr. 3 to be a showdown between the country’s right and left wings. Another calculation is that the LKP has nothing to lose from framing the election along ideological lines, since that would galvanize its traditional supporters and split the moderates.

“Even now, the whole nation is anxious about blacklists and snooping on civilians. If established, a senior official criminal investigation agency would be used to cook up fake crimes and trample those who oppose the government,” Hwang said during a meeting of the party’s election committee.

“In order to stop this administration’s leftist dictatorship, we have to win big in the by-elections and give them a taste of the people’s judgment. Down the road, our goal is to win the parliamentary elections and to take back power.”

The LKP also apparently aims to gain popular support by smearing the fast track discussion in the National Assembly – which all the other parties participated in – as a “left-wing alliance.” But concerns are also being raised inside Hwang’s own party about his ideological offensive.

“If we cross the line as we did with the remarks about the Gwangju Democratization Movement, we could lose points with the centrists,” said one LKP lawmaker.

By Jung Yu-gyung, staff reporter

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