[Politics, That Day...] The Longest-Standing Conservative Party, The Dawn of 15 Years of Hannara Party History

Born from the merger of the New Korea Party and the Democratic Party ahead of the 1997 presidential election... Grand victory for the Hannara Party in the 2006 local elections and the 2008 general election

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min] ‘Politics, That Day…’ is a series planning corner that looks back on Korean politics through the ‘recollection of memories’ related to notable scenes, events, or figures.

If you were to name one party symbolizing Korean conservative politics, ‘Hannara Party’ would be the first to come to mind. The Democratic Justice Party cannot be free from the label of ‘military dictatorship,’ and the Democratic Liberal Party is not free from the controversy of the ‘Three-Party Merger.’ The New Korea Party also existed for seven years from January 1990 to November 1997 and brought election victories, but the Hannara Party is beyond that.

The Hannara Party boasts a 15-year history from November 1997 to February 2012. Numerous politicians have passed through the Hannara Party. There are politicians with ties to the Hannara Party not only in the People Power Party, which currently represents conservative parties, but also in the Democratic Party of Korea.

The Hannara Party contested three presidential elections under its banner: the 1997 presidential election, the 2002 presidential election, and the 2007 presidential election. Looking only at the presidential election results, it had one win and two losses. However, the Hannara Party’s power was tremendous in the National Assembly elections and the simultaneous local elections nationwide.

The 18th general election in 2008 and the 4th simultaneous local elections in 2006 ended in overwhelming victories for the Hannara Party. Especially, the 2006 local elections gave conservative parties a result that is hard to come by again in the history of Korean elections.

The Hannara Party won not only the mayoral election in Seoul, the heart of politics, but also all 25 district mayor elections. In the Seoul Metropolitan Council constituency elections, which elect 96 members, the party produced 96 winners. This means that all Hannara Party candidates running for Seoul Metropolitan Council constituency seats were elected. Regardless of the candidates’ qualifications and abilities or the competitiveness of opposing party candidates, the equation ‘Hannara Party nomination = election victory’ was established.

The prologue to the 15-year history of the Hannara Party, which gave a strong memory of victory to conservative politics, goes back to the 1997 presidential election. At that time, the New Korea Party, led by Chairman Lee Hoi-chang, nurtured dreams of winning the presidential election but pushed for a merger with the Democratic Party (Chairman Jo Soon) ahead of the election.

On November 21, 1997, a party merger convention was held at Chungmu Gymnasium in Daejeon between the New Korea Party and the Democratic Party. On that day, the unified new party, the Hannara Party, was officially launched. Lee Hoi-chang was chosen as the presidential candidate, Jo Soon as the first chairman, and Representative Lee Han-dong took the role of party leader.

The Hannara Party deleted ‘setting history straight’ from the New Korea Party’s platform and included supplements to the financial real-name system and real estate real-name system in its policies. The justification for the merger was to clear the legacy of the ‘Three Kims’ and to win the presidential election.

On June 24, 2018, former Prime Minister Lee Hoi-chang, who visited the funeral hall of the late former Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil at Seoul Asan Medical Center in Songpa-gu, Seoul, is answering questions from the press after paying his respects. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

The 1997 presidential election saw regional powerhouses such as politicians Kim Dae-jung (DJ), Kim Jong-pil (JP), and Park Tae-joon (TJ) unite and move as a single front. The condition was that Kim Dae-jung, the candidate of the National Congress for New Politics, would run in the presidential election and form a joint government if victorious.

The New Korea Party countered this by launching the Hannara Party as a bold move. This was less than a month before the presidential election. The 1997 presidential election was contested under the Hannara Party banner. The contest remained a close race until the end.

Kim Dae-jung, the candidate of the National Congress for New Politics, received 40.27% of the vote, but Lee Hoi-chang, the Hannara Party candidate, also performed well with 38.74%. The outcome was decided by a narrow margin of only 390,000 votes. If it were not for Lee In-je, the candidate of the National New Party, who garnered nearly 5 million votes, the result might have been different.

The Hannara Party experienced a bitter taste in its first presidential election in 1997. However, it brought a victory report to conservative politics by becoming the largest party in the National Assembly in the 16th general election in 2000. In particular, the Hannara Party delivered consecutive major victories in the 2006 local elections, the 2007 presidential election, and the 2008 general election.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The end of the Hannara Party’s history is also closely related to a ‘presidential election year.’

Under the emergency committee led by Park Geun-hye, the Hannara Party held a national committee meeting on February 13, 2012, and resolved to change the party name. The party name was changed from the Hannara Party, which had served as the banner of conservative politics for 15 years, to the Saenuri Party.

The Saenuri Party prepared a new platform and policy revision that prioritized welfare and job policies. After abandoning the Hannara Party, a symbol of conservative politics, and choosing the Saenuri Party, it launched a campaign targeting moderate voters.

The Saenuri Party won consecutive victories in the 19th general election in April 2012 and the 18th presidential election in December, raising expectations for another heyday of conservative politics. However, the Saenuri Party also disappeared after five years when the party name was changed to the Liberty Korea Party on February 13, 2017, ahead of the presidential election.

Five years is a relatively long period compared to the histories of the Liberty Korea Party or the United Future Party, but it is only about one-third of the 15-year history of the Hannara Party. The conservative party has now been reborn under the new name ‘People Power Party.’ Can the People Power Party grow into a party that surpasses the 15-year history of the Hannara Party?

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.