DP launches new committee to revamp party's image

Politics

Published: 20 Jun. 2023, 17:16

DP launches new committee to revamp party's image

Kim Eun-kyung, right, professor of law at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and the head of the Democratic Party's (DP) new innovation committee to revamp the party's image following several corruption scandals, and DP leader Lee Jae-myung attend a party meeting to launch the committee at the National Assembly in Seoul on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

The Democratic Party (DP) officially launched its so-called "innovation" committee on Tuesday to reform the biggest political party, whose leadership had been put into question.

The party has been embroiled in several recent controversies, including ones involving its party chief Lee Jae-myung, a bribery scandal tied to the party's convention in 2021 and alleged cryptocurrency profiteering by a lawmaker. Additionally, several DP lawmakers made controversial statements against the survivors of the Cheonan sinking, not to mention the recent debacle over the meeting between Chinese Ambassador to Korea Xing Haiming and Lee.

“The Democratic Party lost public trust due to the bribery case and the cryptocurrency investment incident,” said Kim Eun-kyung, head of the DP’s special innovation committee that launched on Tuesday. “We will need to put in extreme efforts to be reborn as a party based on high moral standards.”

The innovation committee consists of seven members, only two of whom are members of the party. The others are mainly from academia.

They include lawyer Kim Nam-hee, professor of law at Ajou University Lee Jin-kuk and DP Rep. Lee Hae-sik.

Kim said she will tolerate no attempts to split the party or slow down its attempts to revamp itself.

"Despite the government and the People Power Party [PPP] not doing their jobs properly, the public doesn't yet see the DP as an alternative," Kim said. "This is because they don’t trust the DP.”

The DP, which holds the majority of seats in the National Assembly with 167 over the PPP’s 113, has been under intense pressure as scandals continued to plague the party even as it prepares for the general election next year.

Several of its lawmakers are being investigated.

Prosecutors are investigating suspicions that bribes totaling 94 million won ($71,700) were distributed to DP members ahead of the party's national convention in 2021 to help then-lawmaker and eventual winner Song Young-gil be elected party chairman.

Song's leadership was considered to be the foundation for naming Lee as the party's presidential candidate for the race in 2022, which the party narrowly lost to PPP and its candidate Yoon Suk Yeol.

Lee himself has been indicted for the Daejang-dong development scandal, in which Lee — then-Seongnam mayor — is accused of using profits generated through favors given to private developers as political funds. He has also been implicated in alleged bribery related to corporate sponsorship of Seongnam’s football club, as well as the illegal wiring of money to North Korea in violation of United Nations sanctions.

One of the party’s former key lawmakers, Kim Nam-kuk, an avid supporter of Lee, has also faced accusations of having 6 billion won in cryptocurrency investments. Kim is a young politician who has asked party supporters for donations due to his supposedly dire financial situation.

Prosecutors are investigating Kim, and raided the offices of Upbit and Bithumb, Korea's two largest cryptocurrency exchanges, last month, in connection to Kim’s case.

The launch of the party’s innovation committee came a day after Lee said he would waive his parliamentary protections against arrest and stand in front of a judge to prove the insolence of the prosecutors.

“We reflect on the unfortunate reality that the Democratic Party is not sufficiently loved and recognized by the people, and we are going to show our people a new version of the Democratic Party,” Lee said at the meeting to launch the committee on Tuesday.

After Lee used his rights as a lawmaker to be protected against the prosecutors' arrest warrant, some criticized what they called the immorality and incompetence of the party's leadership.

Although the court dismissed the request to issue an arrest warrant on Lee, the investigations soon led to divisions within the party.

In yet another recent scandal, Lee was accused by the rival PPP of being used as a prop by Chinese Ambassador Xing, who in his live-cast meeting with Lee warned that those who bet against China in its competition against the U.S. would "regret" it.

DP chief Lee had initially named a longtime progressive political activist to lead the party's internal reform.

The candidate, however, stepped down when past social media posts surfaced in which he claimed the ROKS Cheonan was not sunk by North Korea, but sank itself at the behest of the U.S.

BY LEE HO-JEONG,ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]