New PPP chief Han pledges to listen, communicate more to win 'hearts and minds'

Politics

Published: 24 Jul. 2024, 19:07 Updated: 24 Jul. 2024, 19:15

New PPP chief Han pledges to listen, communicate more to win 'hearts and minds'

Newly elected People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon pays his respects at the Seoul National Cemetery in Dongjak District, southern Seoul, on Wednesday morning. [YONHAP]

Newly elected People Power Party (PPP) leader Han Dong-hoon pledged to “win hearts and minds” as he conducted his first official activities on Wednesday.

After offering flowers and paying his respects at the Seoul National Cemetery in Dongjak District, southern Seoul, in the morning, Han also wrote in the visitors’ log that he would “listen more carefully and communicate more with the people” during his second round as PPP leader, which kicked off only three months after he stepped down as the party’s interim leader in the wake of the party’s disastrous showing in the April general election.

While declining to respond to reporters’ questions during his visit to the cemetery, Han promised that the PPP under his leadership would “do well.”

Han, who was elected to the helm of the conservative PPP by an overwhelming majority on Tuesday evening, also attended a banquet on Wednesday evening with President Yoon Suk Yeol, high-ranking PPP officials and former contenders for the party’s top post at a garden inside the presidential office complex in Yongsan District, central Seoul.

Han garnered support from 62.8 percent of PPP members against former Land Minister Won Hee-ryong, who came in second with 18.8 percent support. The other two candidates, Reps. Na Kyung-won and Yoon Sang-hyun, won 14.6 percent and 3.7 percent of the vote.

Faced with the high likelihood of Han winning the leadership contest, the president sought to reassure PPP and government officials in recent meetings that he would try to smooth relations with the new party leader.

Like the president, Han served in the state prosecution service before being appointed as Yoon’s first justice minister in May 2022. He quit that post to serve as the PPP’s interim leader in December last year but quit immediately after the party’s parliamentary minority shrank even further in April.

Officials who were privy to the president’s conversations have told the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity that Yoon asked them to “trust him to mend fences” with Han.

According to domestic media reports, the pair’s relationship suffered a rift after Han declined to defend first lady Kim Keon Hee against accusations of influence peddling and approved candidates for the PPP’s parliamentary slate without consulting with Yoon.

One high-ranking presidential official told the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday that the president “shares a 20-year bond with Han” and that “while the two may differ on ways and means, they share the same outlook and will be able to resolve their differences through dialogue.”

Yoon and Han’s relationship is likely to face tests in other ways in the near future, especially in situations where the PPP leader must decide how closely his party should hew to the administration on controversial issues.

In a meeting with reporters at the National Assembly, Han vowed that the PPP would “be a political party that upholds the democratic process” in response to a question regarding the party’s response to the liberal Democratic Party’s push to establish a special counsel probe into the death of Marine Cpl. Chae Su-geun, who drowned during a mission to rescue flood victims last summer.

The DP has accused the Defense Ministry of interfering in the military’s internal inquest into Chae’s death and criticized Yoon for vetoing its previous attempts to pass a special counsel bill in the National Assembly.

Yoon’s administration has argued that a special counsel probe should only take place after the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials concludes its investigation.

While Han suggested during his leadership campaign that he would support the establishment special counsel probe if it was guaranteed to be impartial, he also said on Wednesday that he would defer to floor leader Choo Kyung-ho if the two disagreed.

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