After the fall: Where Korea’s main conservative party goes next

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After the fall: Where Korea’s main conservative party goes next

Published: 23 Jun. 2025, 00:01

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Jaung Hoon

The author is an emeritus professor at Chung-Ang University and a columnist for the JoongAng Ilbo.

At last week’s Group of 7 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada, world leaders gathered to address global crises, including the trade war, the war in Ukraine and the escalating Israel-Iran conflict. Curious about the political affiliations of the Group of 7 heads of government, I looked them up: five are conservatives (Germany, France, Japan, and the far-right leaders of the United States and Italy), while only two — Canada and the United Kingdom — are progressives. Conservatism still holds firm across major democratic states.

Kim Moon-soo, presidential candidate of the People Power Party, makes a deep bow as he appeals for public support at Ansan Culture Square in Ansan, Gyeonggi, on May 29. [YONHAP]

This global pattern, however, contrasts sharply with the state of conservatism in Korea. The People Power Party (PPP), Korea’s main conservative party, is mired in dysfunction. Its crushing loss to President Lee Jae Myung in the recent presidential election is only one symptom of its deeper collapse. Since the emergency martial law declaration late last year, the PPP has been engulfed in chaos: factional disputes, erosion of its support base and rising threats from far-right splinter groups. The party resembles a ghost ship, adrift and leaderless.

Much can be said about the causes of this decline, but two structural flaws stand out. First, power within the party is monopolized by multiple-term lawmakers from safe districts in the Yeongnam region and parts of Gangwon. Second, these figures — long insulated from electoral competition — have lost all political and generational sensitivity.

The concept of a “parliament-centered party,” often associated with the U.S. model, has long been misapplied in Korea. In theory, U.S. parties are loosely organized around elected officials rather than mass ideological movements. Without strong party apparatuses, U.S. parties rely on elected legislators to lead policymaking and compromise across ideological divides.

In Korea, the U.S.-style “parliament-centered” party model has become a shield for entrenched interests. In the PPP, it has led to a system where long-serving lawmakers maintain a stranglehold over the party. This was on full display during the failed attempt to replace the PPP’s presidential candidate in a midnight coup this May.

Kim Moon-soo, presidential candidate of the People Power Party, meets with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo at the party’s campaign office in Yeouido, Seoul, on May 11. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Between May 9 and 10, the party leadership — controlled by veteran lawmakers — tried to void the primary results and install a new nominee. The emergency leadership committee sought to reconvene a party convention overnight. Behind closed doors, they pushed for a merger with an external candidate. Every move was orchestrated by those same veteran lawmakers who dominate the party machinery.

Two elements of this distorted system are especially troubling. First, the party leadership holds unchecked authority: not only over the disbursement of hundreds of billions of won in state subsidies, but also over the very rules governing candidate selection. No other Group of 7 democracy allows party leaders to rewrite nomination procedures at will just weeks before an election.

Second, and more critically, the composition of these power holders sets Korea’s conservatives apart from their global counterparts. The PPP’s veteran lawmakers mostly come from districts where the party label alone guarantees re-election — namely Daegu in North Gyeongsang, Busan in South Gyeongsang and a few parts of Gangwon. In contrast, few multi-term PPP lawmakers come from Seoul or other competitive areas, where social change demands responsiveness. In the United States, even veteran lawmakers must face open primaries. In Korea, there are no such checks.

This raises the central question: who, and how, can dismantle the power monopoly of the PPP’s entrenched lawmakers? The upcoming party convention in August is not the answer. What the party needs is a structural reckoning — beginning perhaps with the launch of a “Committee on Party Democracy” to review whether the May 10 midnight maneuver was even consistent with the constitutional mandate for democratic party governance.

The People Power Party’s headquarters building in Yeouido, Seoul. [KIM SANG-SEON]

In the United States, it was a party reform committee — the McGovern-Fraser Commission — that overhauled the Democratic Party after its disastrous 1968 convention. Following the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the party leadership nominated Hubert Humphrey, a candidate who had not even run in the primaries. The result was an electoral defeat and widespread public anger. The commission, driven by party members’ demands for transparency, led to lasting reforms.

Today, the PPP’s young members and first-term lawmakers face a similar test. Will they be able to channel the party’s crisis into meaningful reform? Or will veteran lawmakers again resort to their usual maneuvers to preserve their grip on power?

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.