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DP chief's supporters attack rebel lawmakers after vote

Published: 02 Mar. 2023, 19:08

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung making a brief appearance at the National Assembly on Thursday. [YONHAP]

The National Assembly’s narrow rejection Monday of an arrest warrant motion for Democratic Party (DP) chair Lee Jae-myung continues to reverberate as internal divisions within Lee’s party intensify.

Lee’s supporters have been circulating “hit lists” and wanted posters of DP lawmakers accused of actively or passively siding with the arrest warrant. Some have even targeted former president Moon Jae-in and former prime minister Lee Nak-yon.

The former prime minister, who lost to Lee Jae-myung in the DP presidential primary, drew particular ire from the party chief’s supporters, who accuse him of creating the Daejang-dong scandal in the first place.

The lists even included the mobile phone numbers of lawmakers accused of stabbing Lee in the back.

Some lawmakers have been bombarded with messages, including five-term DP lawmaker Lee Sang-min.

“It’s not just the number of texts that I received,” Lee said in a radio show on Tuesday. “The message of the texts were savage.”

“This goes far beyond basic decency,” Lee said.

A poster assumed to be made by Lee Jae-myung supporters targeting Democratic Party members believed to have played a key role in sabotaging the party. Similar ″hit lists″ of lawmakers including their phone numbers have been spreading. [KOREA JOONGANG DAILY]

The lawmakers on the lists were called subak, or “watermelon,” a slur directed at DP members who are blue/green — the color of the party — on the outside, but red — the color of the rival People Power Party — on the inside.

Some Lee Jae-myung supporters — known as Gaettal, short for Gaehyeok eui Ttal or “Daughters of Reform” — are moving to oust lawmakers who voted in favor of the arrest warrant or intentionally cast invalid votes Monday.

A member of the DP’s supreme council, Jung Chung-rae, wrote on Facebook that he received a message asking if he was a subak.

“My answer is that I voted against the motion,” Jung said,

Lawmakers who are strong supporters of the party leader went on the offense.

Representative Kim Nam-kuk accused fellow DP lawmakers who voted for the arrest motion or intentionally invalidated their votes of organizing their votes ahead of time, something he likened to “trying to push a comrade off a cliff.”

“Several lawmakers said they received at least one call asking that they vote in favor or make their vote invalid,” Kim said in a radio show on Thursday. “Some lawmakers even heard from colleagues that there would be a substantial number of invalid votes.”

He also claimed that one lawmaker reportedly read a verse from the Gospel of Matthew on death and resurrection to Lee before Monday’s vote, something Kim said was an insult to the party leader.

He said the verse was essentially a message to Lee to resign as DP chief.

The DP’s leadership has mostly remained silent on the attacks on the allegedly rebel lawmakers.

On his Facebook page Wednesday, floor leader Park Hong-keun said now is not the time to assign blame.

“Falling into the swamp of determining accountability amongst ourselves is a trap set up by the Yoon Suk Yeol government,” Park wrote.

Lee Jae-myung has not made any public appearances since Wednesday’s event to commemorate the March 1 Independence Movement.

However, on Facebook, he attacked the Yoon Suk Yeol administration for its recent personnel blunder of appointing former prosecutor Chung Sun-sin as head of the police’s National Office of Investigation.

Chung withdrew his nomination amid criticism of his son’s record for school bullying.

Although the DP leader called out cronyism, he made no remarks regarding Monday’s vote or the developing feud within his party.

The DP leadership had earlier expressed confidence that the National Assembly would overwhelmingly vote against the prosecutors’ motion to approve an arrest for Lee on charges that included breach of duty and bribery.

The DP enjoys a parliamentary majority with a commanding 169 seats and another six friendly votes.

However, the motion — which required approval from a majority of lawmakers present to pass — was only narrowly defeated.

In fact, more lawmakers voted in favor of it than against, 139 to 38. Another 11 votes were ruled invalid, while nine lawmakers abstained.

The surprisingly narrow result has been interpreted as dissatisfaction with Lee within some quarters of the DP.

Meanwhile, President Yoon Suk Yeol’s popularity has increased slightly while his disapproval numbers fell.

A National Barometer Survey of 1,010 people aged 18 or over held between Feb. 27 and March 1 found that 37 percent of respondents supported President Yoon while 51 percent opposed him.

Support was up 1 percentage points from the previous week, while opposition was down 4 percentage points.

Support for the PPP stood at 39 percent, unchanged from the previous week, while the DP’s support was 27 percent, 1 percentage point higher on-week.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [[email protected]]