SEOUL– The Supreme Council of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) decided Tuesday to convene a meeting of the party’s national committee to discuss switching to an emergency leadership system after breaking up the current leadership.
Four out of seven Supreme Council members voted for the motion to convene a national committee meeting, party spokesperson Park Hyeung-soo said. Approval by the national committee is necessary for the party to shift to the “emergency committee system.”
A national committee meeting is expected to take place as early as Friday.
The ruling party has been in turmoil since acting chairman Kweon Seong-dong inadvertently exposed text messages he exchanged with President Yoon Suk-yeol last week, in which Yoon was seen backbiting about suspended party chief Lee Jun-seok.
Party members raised questions about Kweon’s leadership and urged him to take responsibility for the incident, which has accelerated drops in Yoon’s approval ratings to below 30 percent in some surveys, unusually low ratings for a president less than three months in office.
Some Supreme Council members quit the top decision-making body in an apparent effort to break up the council so that the party can shift to the emergency committee system. Kweon also resigned as acting chairman of the party and agreed to switch to the emergency system.
Kweon took over as acting leader of the party early last month after Lee had his party membership suspended for six months over allegations that he received sexual services paid for by a businessperson in 2013 and attempted to cover it up after the allegations surfaced late last year.
He is known as one of Yoon’s closest confidants, called Yoonhaekgwan — an abbreviation of “Yoon Suk-yeol’s core associates” in Korean — that also include Reps. Chang Je-won and Yoon Han-hong.
Lee, who has constantly been at odds with Yoonhaekgwan, has protested against switching to the emergency committee system because it would foreclose the possibility of his return as party leader after his suspension.
“Their greed to possess the One Ring continues,” Lee wrote on his Facebook page after the Supreme Council announced its decision, comparing the PPP’s situation to the famous series “Lord of the Rings.”
Lee also questioned the integrity of Tuesday’s Supreme Council vote, pointing out that one member took part in the vote even after offering to quit the council days earlier. He was referring to Rep. Bae Hyun-jin, one of Lee’s opponents in the party.
Source: Yonhap News Agency