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DP head Lee Jae-myung’s leadership in crisis

Published: 18 May. 2023, 20:00

The Democratic Party (DP) has changed its mind and decided to refer the controversial case of its former member Kim Nam-kuk to the National Assembly Special Committee on Ethics. The majority party has so far been passive about Kim’s suspicious trading and possessions of cryptocurrencies worth millions of dollars after he voluntarily left the opposition.

DP spokesperson Park Sung-joon said that party chief Lee Jae-myung has raised the need to file Kim’s case to the ethics committee since Kim has admitted to having traded cryptocurrencies while a parliamentary session of a standing committee was underway. “We judged that the case should be handled by the ethics committee in the National Assembly as a party probe could take long,” Park said.

He said the DP initially mulled embarking on an internal investigation but that it decided to send the case to the ethics committee after the party leader ordered. But the sudden change in the party’s behavior is suspected of having been triggered by growing negative sentiment toward the lawmaker and the party, which could work fatally for its prospects in next year’s parliamentary elections. The dilly-dallying response has dealt another blow to Lee’s leadership.

The party has been more or less protecting Kim by taking no disciplinary action since news reports on May 5 exposed Kim’s possession of Wemix coins worth 6 billion won ($4.5 million). The DP held a general meeting over the weekend after Kim left the party, but it came out with little output. Many members voiced the need to refer Kim’s case to the ethics committee. The DP referred to Kim as an “individual lawmaker” — instead of specifying his name — in the resolution the party released after the meeting.

Kim went to the same university as the party leader and was a member of the original group supporting Lee Jae-myung. Kim acted as the chief secretary to Lee during the last presidential campaign. Many suspect that the party’s tolerance of Kim’s deviations owed much to Lee’s protection. In the meantime, Lee’s diehard supporters hurriedly came to Kim’s rescue, bombarding party members with insult messages for demanding Kim’s withdrawal from the party. They attacked Kim’s opponents for betraying the DP and siding with the conservative People Power Party to oust him from the party. But Chairman Lee and other leaders of the party did not call for restraints on such nonsense.

The DP leader and his supporters acted as if they were oblivious to the public rage and disappointment at Kim’s actions. At least it finally came to its senses by referring the case to the ethics committee. The DP must stop damaging its party integrity and identity with abnormal behaviors.