[Editorial] The United Future Party is just a throwback to Park Geun-hye’s Saenuri Party

Posted on : 2020-02-18 18:00 KST Modified on : 2020-02-18 18:00 KST
Hwang Kyo-ahn, head of the newly formed United Future Party, poses with other party members during a launch ceremony at the National Assembly on Feb. 17.
Hwang Kyo-ahn, head of the newly formed United Future Party, poses with other party members during a launch ceremony at the National Assembly on Feb. 17.

A party has been launched that reunites the South Korean conservatives who were splintered in the aftermath of former President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment. During the launch event for the United Future Party (UFP), held at the National Assembly on Feb. 17, the Liberty Korea Party (LKP), New Conservative Party (NCP), and Onward for Future 4.0, among others, announced that they would “save the Republic of Korea” and “achieve the fervent desires of the public to judge the Moon administration for its tyranny.”

Three years after being fractured by the Park impeachment, South Korea’s conservative forces (with the exception of the Our Republican Party) have finally moved beyond the impeachment debacle, with the hope of punishing the current administration in the parliamentary elections on Apr. 15, just 58 days from now.

Having boosted its contingent in the National Assembly to 113 seats, the UFP views itself as the one conservative force that can stand up to the ruling Democratic Party. But the “conservative reform” that had been the rallying cry of the forces of coalition got lost somewhere along the way. Nor does the conservative bloc have any clear vision, opening it up to criticism for hurriedly throwing together a coalition in order to grab an extra seat or two in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The NCP, which had promised “conservative reform” when it splintered off from the Bareunmirae Party only a month ago, has been absorbed in the UFP without achieving much of anything. Yoo Seong-min, the lawmaker who’d raised doubts about reform at the LKP, cleared the path for the merger when he announced he wouldn’t seek reelection.

The UFP has effectively inherited the LKP’s previous leadership. LKP head Hwang Kyo-ahn will helm the new bloc, and seven of the members of the LKP’s supreme council will have a seat on the UFP council. Furthermore, LKP floor leader Shim Jae-cheol and Kim Jae-won, LKP policy committee chairman, will hold equivalent positions under the UFP. There are four new additions to the UFP supreme council — including Won Hee-ryong, governor of Jeju Province, and Lee Jun-seok, chair of the NCP’s “young party vision committee” — but that basically restores the party to the way it was under the Park Geun-hye administration.

The UFP has symbolically shown its true colors by its retention of Kim Sun-rye on the supreme council, despite her offensive description of protesters in the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement as a “pack of monsters.” Lee Jong-myeong, who was ejected from the LKP party for controversial comments about the events in Gwangju, was shunted to the Future Korea Party, a satellite party set up to siphon off seats under the new proportional system. Such moves suggest that the reunited conservative forces are resorting to dubious schemes in a bid to seize a majority in the National Assembly.

In a democratic society, the realignment of parties should be seen as a political freedom. But expecting Koreans to vote for a dubiously concocted bloc simply because of their frustration with Moon Jae-in implies a contemptuous view of voters. On top of that, the UFP’s first election platform is extremely reactionary. It’s packed with measures that could trigger a Cold War-style confrontation, including the permanent deployment of US nuclear assets to the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula, working with the US military to develop a “decapitation” plan for knocking off the North Korean leadership, withdrawing from the Comprehensive Military Agreement (concluded by South and North Korea on Sept. 19, 2018), and suspending South Korea’s recovery of wartime operational control (OPCON) of its military from the US. Such proposals are not just disappointing — they’re disturbing.

While the UFP may have put the word “future” in its name, it can only be regarded as a reversion to the Saenuri Party of the past. The conservatives need to be aware that making a cynical bid for votes without implementing reforms or offering a vision for the future will, in the end, be ignored by the South Korean public.

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

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