DP must show its real face before it’s too late

At the center of the controversial nominations of candidates for proportional representative seats in the National Assembly ahead of the April 10 parliamentary elections is a novel coalition of far-left parties, including the Progressive Party, the New Progressive Coalition (provisional English name), and the United Political Citizens’ Conference. They are satellites of the majority Democratic Party (DP).

The problem is that they include a number of disputable figures with pro-North Korean ideology. Some of them spread wild rumors about mad cow disease in U.S. beef imports and the sinking of the Cheonan warship. The revival of radical leftists ahead of the election sounds loud alarms.

More worrisome is the Progressive Party’s shocking nominations of its candidates for the 46 proportional seats in the 300-member legislature. (The party is expected to gain at least three proportional seats in the upcoming election.) Chang Jin-sook, a candidate of the party, had been sought for three years due to her pro-North activities at Hongik University in the 1990s. She was arrested and indicted for violating the National Security Act in 2000 and received a suspended sentence from the court.

Chun Jong-du — another candidate of the party and a former member of the far-left United Progressive Party (UPP) — had led a movement to exonerate her boss Lee Seok-ki, a former UPP lawmaker, from his criminal charges . Chun also served as the general secretary of the combative Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. Son Sol, another candidate of the party, served as co-chair of the People’s Party, a successor of the UPP. That’s not all. The United Political Citizens’ Conference, another DP satellite, was given four proportional seats safe to win. The conference will soon announce its candidates with similar backgrounds.

Under normal conditions, the pro-North forces opposing the Korea-U.S. alliance, demanding the dismantlement of chaebol, and advocating for the third generation power succession in North Korea cannot run in elections. DP leader Lee Jae-myung cannot avoid responsibility for any possible problems originating with their pro-Pyongyang ideology and extremist stance in the next legislature.

To make matters worse, Rep. Yong Hae-in, a proportional representative of the Basic Income Party, migrated to the New Progressive Coalition to help extend her term again. She has nominated herself as the candidate of the suspicious coalition. Is this really progressivism?

The Fatherland Innovation Party (translated), is no different. Its head Cho Kuk, a former justice minister, was sentenced to two years in jail for criminal charges in his second trial. If this is not a farce, what is? The DP must show its real face before it’s too late.