Retired lawmaker Hwang Woo-yea nominated as PPP's interim leader

Hwang Woo-yea

The interim leader of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) named retired five-term lawmaker Hwang Woo-yea as the head of the party's emergency steering committee on Monday.

Hwang, who currently serves as a senior adviser to the party, is expected to oversee the party’s organization of a national convention to elect a new permanent leader after it suffered a crushing defeat in the April 10 general election.

PPP floor leader Yun Jae-ok, who is currently serving as the party’s interim leader, told reporters after the announcement that the party searched for candidates with “fairness, political experience and public trust” to head its steering committee, and that he believes Hwang will be able to “manage the national convention fairly” as a former five-term lawmaker with good “morals and character.”

Hwang served as a leader of the conservative Saenuri Party, which preceded the current PPP, from 2012 to 2014. He also served as both prime minister and minister of education under President Park Geun-hye from 2014 to 2016.

As a lawmaker, Hwang chaired Korea’s National Breakfast Prayer Committee and supported the passage of stronger legal protections for North Korean defectors, but also campaigned to exclude sexual minorities from the purview of the National Human Rights Commission.

Hwang’s nomination is likely to be approved by the PPP’s national committee on Thursday.

The party has been led by an emergency steering committee since August 2022, when then-leader Lee Jun-seok was suspended from the party over allegations of sexual misconduct.

The party has since already undergone two leadership turnovers. The last emergency steering committee led by former Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon disbanded after the latest election, which saw the PPP win only 108 seats in the 300-member National Assembly against the rival Democratic Party (DP), which won 175 seats.

In a statement released Monday, DP spokesperson Choi Min-seok expressed concern that the nomination of a veteran conservative politician like Hwang signaled a lack of desire for reform within the PPP despite its resounding loss in the election.

Meanwhile, Yun met DP floor leader Hong Ihk-pyo and National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo over lunch on Monday amid strong disagreements between the two parties over pending legislation.

The DP has called for two plenary sessions at the National Assembly on May 2 and 28 to pass a bill against abuses of the country’s jeonse rental system and establish special counsel probes into the Itaewon crowd crush of October 2022 and the drowning of a young Marine during flood operations last year.

The PPP has rejected the DP’s call to convene the plenary sessions, arguing that the DP is abusing its majority in the National Assembly to wage political battles.

According to Yun, the PPP is willing to hold a plenary session to pass bipartisan bills addressing livelihood issues, but not bills regarding political controversies.

But Hong has argued that the PPP’s refusal to hold votes on the special counsel probe bills signals its rejection of public sentiment.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]