hankyoreh

Han Duck-soo, who is running for president as an independent, and Kim Moon-soo, the PPP’s nominee for president. (Hankyoreh file photo)

From the outset, the People Power Party was at a great disadvantage going into the June 3 presidential election — an election that is being held on account of their previous pick for the presidency, Yoon Suk-yeol, being impeached and deposed. Even if Kim Moon-soo and Han Duck-soo merge their candidacies to form a single ticket, most PPP lawmakers still acknowledge that the pair fundamentally lack the power to chip away at the lead held by Democrat Lee Jae-myung. But why is the PPP leadership intent on keeping Kim Moon-soo down while surrendering the position of party nominee to the independent Han Duck-soo?

A look at comments from PPP lawmakers and officials suggests that the most likely answer is next-term party leadership. The party leadership claims that promoting the single ticket is for the sake of winning the election, but the reality is somewhat different. 

In recent polls and surveys of candidate fitness, there is very little difference between the level of support for Kim and Han. Polling agency Research & Research was commissioned by the Dong-A Ilbo on May 4-5 to conduct a survey on 1,013 men and women aged 18 or older in which respondents were asked whom, Kim or Han, they thought was more suitable as a candidate if the two were to consolidate into a single ticket. The results favored Han over Kim by a margin of 27.6% to 25.9%, but the difference was within the margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points (95% confidence level). This was the context behind Kim stating, “If there was a chance of winning with Han Duck-soo then I would have nothing to say as the sacrifice. But is that really the case?” in a Kwanhun Club debate on Thursday.

The problem is that PPP leadership and the party establishment do not have full faith in Kim. To the PPP establishment, which mainly consists of high-ranking bureaucrats and elites from the legal profession, Kim, a former activist who represents the pavement-pounding, forward-looking right, is like a rugby ball that could bounce in any direction. It would be awkward for the PPP if he refused to obediently stand aside after the election and instead used his standing as party presidential nominee to attempt a holdout. This view was apparent in remarks made by Kwon Young-se, the interim leader of the party, in a sit-down with reporters at the National Assembly on Thursday.

Kwon had no qualms about attacking Kim during the presser, stating, “It’s a difficult election, so what’s the use in being the candidate in an unwinnable election? You might be able to take control of the party after [the election loss], but even if you get it, what would you do with it?” The claim is that Kim breaking his promise to unify with Han is a strategic move aimed at seizing power in the national party convention to be held after the election.

However, the predominant view both in and outside the party is that the pro-Yoon Suk-yeol leadership is more focused on next-term party leadership than winning the election. 

Kim Keun-sik, a professor of politics and foreign affairs at Kyungnam University and head of the PPP’s party member council for the Songpa C district, remarked on this point in a post uploaded to Facebook. “The pro-Yoon elites didn’t care whether the country goes bankrupt or Lee Jae-myung is elected as long as they protect their vested interests,” he wrote. “[So] instead of Hong Joon-pyo, who won’t listen, they tried to put forward dim-witted Kim Moon-soo to get things sorted with Han Duck-soo, an outsider who will do their bidding.” 

This is the same conclusion reached by Hong, the former mayor of Daegu who announced his retirement from politics upon losing in the PPP primary. “Yongsan and the party leadership believe Kim Moon-soo is a pushover, so they conspired to put him in the limelight while doing away with Hong Joon-pyo, a thorn in the side of Han Duck-soo,” Hong claimed in a Facebook post uploaded the day before.

Lawmakers have also come forward with biting comments toward the party leadership. In a general National Assembly meeting held the same day, one third-term lawmaker expressed doubts over the PPP leadership’s excessive meddling, stating, “Talks about a single ticket should be left to the candidates. Why do you keep interfering?” 

Another second-term member brought up the “wooden club party convention” of the 1970s — when Yi Cheol-seung hired armed thugs to terrorize his opponents and commandeer the New Democratic Party — before sarcastically remarking, “The only thing missing is the clubs. Isn’t this battle [for party leadership] the same as what it was like back then? There’s no reason, no logic, and the Korean people are nowhere in sight.”

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter

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