By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
An emergency meeting Tuesday brought a crisis of South Korea’s ruling Saenuri Party to a head, so that within hours a decision was to be made over whether to force out Floor Leader Yoo Seung-min.
It is a choice that may have implications beyond the Saenuri camp itself, as the ousting of Yoo might be viewed as pandering to the wishes of President Park Geun-hye.
The head of state made it known in no uncertain terms last month that she disapproved of Yoo’s role in the passage of a bill aimed at handing lawmakers greater power at the expense of the presidential Blue House.
Park exercised the first veto of her presidency by sending the legislation back to the National Assembly, where the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) hoped to revive the bill.
The Saenuri Party boycotted Monday a re-vote on the move to allow lawmakers to pursue changes to government ordinances, prompting the latest in a series of breakdowns with the NPAD.
Following Tuesday’s showdown, Saenuri Chairman Kim Moo-sung told reporters that a general meeting would take place at 9.00 a.m. (0100GMT) Wednesday.
The aim, he said, would be “to adopt a resolution recommending the resignation of the floor leader to achieve the successful future of the Saenuri Party and the Park Geun-hye administration.”
It is not certain that all ruling party lawmakers will share that sentiment, however, as they are torn between factions either supporting or opposing the president.
Ironically, Yoo was once Park’s chief of staff when she led the Saenuri Party before winning her place in the Blue House.
Having persevered despite the recent furor, Yoo’s public comments Tuesday were straightforward: “I will follow whatever the decision of the general meeting of the party is.”
If that means Yoo’s resignation by Wednesday mid-morning, a likely opponent to such a move is the NPAD leader Moon Jae-in, who earlier this week compared the president to an “angry queen from a dynastic era who reigns over servants.”
Park’s critics have drawn inevitable comparisons with her authoritarian father, Park Chung-hee, who led South Korea for 18 years in the 1960s and 70s.
