What is the identity of the satellite parties?

Could the upcoming 22nd National Assembly be any better than the worst-ever 21st Assembly? The alarming developments in the majority Democratic Party (DP) ahead of the April 10 parliamentary elections suggest it could be even worse than the previous one. The opposition has established an election coalition for “democracy, reform and progress” — comprised of radical leftist parties and civic groups — to discuss the creation of satellite parties of the DP to get more seats of the 47 proportional representatives in the 300-member legislature.

In the first meeting of the election coalition on Tuesday, there were three controversial figures — Park Seok-woon, Cho Sung-woo and Jin Young-jong — who co-chair the United Political Citizens Group. Park took the lead in nearly all antigovernment protests against the importing of U.S. beef, the deployment of the U.S.-led Thaad missile defense system and the construction of a naval base in Jeju. Cho was arrested while serving as the representative of the Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification, a pro-North Korea group, and Jin led a movement to scrap the National Security Act.

That’s not all. The coalition includes other provocative figures such as Lee Rae-kyung, who resigned as chairman of the innovation committee of the DP just nine hours after appointment over his nonsensical claim that the Cheonan warship sank due to its own problem, and Father Hahm Se-woong, another fanatical leftist. The DP says the coalition will not directly field its own proportional representatives. Will the promise make any difference?

The Progressive Party is mostly comprised of former student activists aligned with the National Liberation League in the 1970s and ‘80s. The left-wing party openly follows that path even now, as seen by its persistent demand for the suspension of South Korea-U.S. joint drills, the pursuit of non-aligned diplomacy and a reduction of our soldiers to 200,000.

Under the normal election system, such fringe groups cannot enter the legislature. But the DP opened the way for them to become lawmakers by creating its satellite parties. If such people are elected legislators, our political theater will head to unprecedented chaos. Just think of Reps. Choi Kang-wook, who lost his seat over corruption related to fake documents, and Yoon Mi-hyang, who was sentenced to prison in her second trial, not to mention Kim Eui-kyum, who habitually spread fake news and conspiracy theories.

What will happen if such substandard figures become lawmakers? DP leader Lee Jae-myung must present minimum ideological and ethical standards for proportional representatives of its satellite parties. Otherwise, the election coalition will destroy our democracy once and for all.