Veteran People Power Party Members Call for 'Opposition Unity'... "Reorganizing Ranks" "A Day to Join Together Will Come"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Senior members of the People Power Party are voicing calls for opposition unity. While Kim Jong-in, the emergency committee chairman of the People Power Party, has drawn a line against merging with the People’s Party, senior members are taking the lead in emphasizing the necessity of unification.

On the 9th, Cho Kyung-tae, a five-term lawmaker of the People Power Party, said on Facebook, "It is now time to reorganize our ranks. We must unify the opposition and must not foster division." He added, "To confront forces aiming for long-term rule by dividing the people, we need to join forces. Beyond who is acceptable and who is not, let’s all come together and move forward."

The People Power Party and the People’s Party have recently made their unification efforts clear by officially advocating for a policy alliance. On the 6th, Kwon Eun-hee, floor leader of the People’s Party, stated at a press conference announcing the 'People’s Party Shared Party Platform and 37 National Audit Policy Tasks,' "We have selected the 37 policy tasks as practical tasks for the 21st National Assembly and have been sharing these with the People Power Party while conducting a policy alliance."

Another senior member of the People Power Party, three-term lawmaker Jang Je-won, also praised the 37 policy tasks, saying, "The 37 policies proposed by the People’s Party show warmth toward the community and firmness toward reform. Their concreteness and clarity stand out." He added, "If the two parties, looking toward the same direction and sharing the same goals, have one side propose discourse while the other fills in the details, and if one side lacks strength, the other supports, then by translating national reform tasks into concrete policies and steadily implementing them one by one, we can overcome small differences and eventually come together."

Kim Jong-in, the Emergency Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, is attending the Emergency Committee meeting held at the National Assembly on the 8th and delivering an opening remark. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

However, Chairman Kim, who leads the People Power Party’s emergency committee, has repeatedly drawn a line against merging with the People’s Party. Especially at a broadcast journalists’ club debate held on the 24th of last month, he said, "What can be achieved by merging? In my view, it will not yield significant results," and added, "Our country’s parties have tried merging and uniting before, but there are hardly any successful examples."

He also criticized the political capabilities of Ahn Cheol-soo, leader of the People’s Party, saying, "(Regarding Ahn’s) political capabilities, even if I don’t evaluate them, everyone else knows," and recalled, "At first, I told him that if he wanted to do politics, he should enter the National Assembly and learn properly. But he looked at me and said, ‘Members of the National Assembly don’t do anything, so why are you telling me to become a lawmaker?’"

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