A Basket of Ants
It’s not an uncommon event for South Korean political parties to split and re-unite during election years, and as you may recall, Kim Dae Jung’s Millenium Democratic Party looked hopelessly split this time five years ago (before it successfully capitalized on anti-Americanism to eke out a narrow win). It’s anyone’s guess what this hopelessly confusing picture will look like next week, so instead of wasting time on analysis that will be meaningless tomorrow, here’s a brief chronology of what’s happening:
Lawmakers walked away from the crumbling Uri Party yesterday as well as a recently formed party, to join a liberal coalition that has not yet been named, party officials said. Fifteen more lawmakers left Uri, once the governing party. Another four left the Moderate Unified Democratic Party, formed by a merger between former Uri and Democratic Party members.
With the 19 additional lawmakers, the unnamed coalition has 64 seats. That outnumbers Uri, which has 50 seats. The new party is expected to be established by Aug. 5. When that happens, the new coalition will become the second-biggest bloc in the National Assembly.
The 19 defectors will join forces with presidential aspirant Sohn Hak-kyu, currently running first in the polls among liberal contenders, as well as candidates backed by leading civic groups. More legislators are expected to join, including several current Moderate Unified Democrats. Lawmakers with that group criticized the new coalition, calling it the second Uri Party because most Uri defectors chose to move there.
The threatened departure of Kim Hong-up, son of former president Kim Dae-jung, means the country’s newest party could be one of its most short-lived. If Kim joins the yet-unnamed new liberal coalition party, at least 20 lawmakers from the Moderate Unified Democratic Party are expected to follow him.
Park Sang-cheon, one of the heads of the Moderate Unified Democratic Party, tried to stop the exodus. Now, he is losing hope. Kim was once one of Park’s strongest supporters. However, he no longer favors Park’s insistence that supporters of President Roh Moo-hyun are not welcome in the Moderate Unified Democratic Party. The party, led by Park, was a merger between Kim Dae-jung’s Democratic Party and Uri Party defectors who wanted to separate themselves from Roh’s influence.
The dreams of a single coalition of liberals took a dent yesterday.
Chough Soon-hyung, the former Democratic Party member known for leading the unsuccessful impeachment drive three years ago against President Roh Moo-hyun, announced yesterday he was going to run for president. And he said it would not be with the yet-unnamed liberal coalition, at least in part because it is welcoming lawmakers loyal to Roh.
“A coalition of liberals should be a merger that can save the nation,” Chough said, saying the country is “in crisis” because Roh is intervening in elections and restricting the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of the press.
Chough is a member of the Moderate Unified Democratic Party, which currently has about 30 members. Many are former Democratic Party members. However, as many as 21 MUD Party members are expected to flock to the new coalition, which could have 80 lawmakers or more.
If you can make any sense of that, give yourself a cookie.
See also:
* The Joongang Ilbo has a cell phone interview with one of the Korean hostages in Afghanistan.
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