Division And Purge: South Korea's Conservatives In Deep Trouble

12/21/2024 3:13:03 PM

(MENAFN- Asia Times) There's an old saying in South Korean politics: rightists fall from corruption, while leftists crumble from division. Lately, however, these roles appear to have reversed.

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung of the left-wing Democratic Party is entangled in five separate trials on charges ranging from bribery to breach of trust. In November, he was convicted of violating election laws – a decision that, if upheld by the Supreme Court, would disqualify him from running in the next presidential election. Cho Kuk, another prominent leftist politician, recently lost his parliamentary seat after the nation's top court upheld his two-year prison sentence for corruption. Lee's and Cho's wives have been convicted, respectively of misusing a corporate credit card and academic fraud.

Contrastingly, the ongoing saga of President Yoon Sok Yeol's impeachment highlights the lengths the pro-Yoon conservatives will go to shield their man, even at the cost of profound division within the broader conservative wing.

The anonymous vote on December 14 to impeach Yoon has sparked widespread speculation that 12 lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party (PPP) broke ranks to support the motion. Three members abstained, and eight votes were invalidated. Assuming all opposition members endorsed the impeachment, 23 ruling party lawmakers diverged from their party's official stance of non-impeachment.

PPP Chairman Han Dong-hoon, who reversed his initial stance to advocate for Yoon's impeachment, has since resigned amid the fallout from the latest crisis – or, more precisely, Han was deposed by senior members of his party.

As if this chaos weren't enough, the ruling party is now using such terms as“traitors” to attack the dozen who defied party directives.

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