Sangdon Lee: "People Power's Comeback Not Easy... Candidate Replacement Possible"

"Yoon, Lacking in Humanities and Social Liberal Arts... Authority Declines Due to Ridicule"
Kim Jong-in's "Please Act" Remark "Very Reckless"
"Lee Jun-seok, Someone Who Can't Keep Quiet... Problems Start There"

Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, is leaving the party headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, on the evening of the 3rd after discussing follow-up measures for the comprehensive reorganization plan of the election campaign committee. / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] Regarding the situation of the People Power Party, which is experiencing the complete dissolution of the election campaign committee (ECC) and a decline in approval ratings due to severe internal conflicts, Professor Lee Sang-don, Emeritus Professor at Chung-Ang University, pointed to the flawed basic structure design of the ECC and the limitations of the candidate himself as the causes.

Professor Lee, who was active in the 'Park Geun-hye ECC' during the 18th presidential election, appeared on KBS Radio's 'Joo Jin-woo Live' on the 4th and said, "Honestly, who would have expected it to come to this extent? It does not seem easy for the People Power Party to make a turnaround after becoming like this," he said.

Professor Lee first pointed out that the basic structure of the ECC, so-called '3 Kim system (Kim Jong-in, Kim Byung-joon, Kim Han-gil),' was problematic. He said, "Gathering these three people and making it so huge, would it function? It doesn't help much and only creates discord among them. The design was flawed," adding, "Chairman Kim Jong-in and others spent a month publicly discussing their internal conflicts in the media."

Regarding Chairman Kim's remark asking presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl to 'delay a bit,' he criticized, "It was just a private comment, but saying it publicly further undermines the candidate's already fallen authority," and added, "What good would that do? It was a very reckless remark."

Professor Lee also raised accountability for Representative Lee Jun-seok. He said, "Representative Lee probably hasn't stopped talking for a single day in the past 10 years. He has a habit of not being able to keep his mouth shut," and added, "Still, I thought that once he became party leader, he would restrain himself, find his position, and lead the election smoothly, but that was not the case at all. I think the problem fundamentally started there."

Professor Emeritus Sangdon Lee, Chung-Ang University. Photo by Yonhap News

Professor Lee pinpointed the biggest problem as the candidate himself. He said, "Is it simply the responsibility of the 3 Kims and Representative Lee? The greatest responsibility lies with the candidate, isn't it?" and questioned, "During the elections of former Presidents Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in, was internal party discord exposed indiscriminately to the media like this?"

Regarding candidate Yoon, he said, "His legal professional friends don't hold him in high regard. Also, he lacks liberal arts and social culture. They just completely threw such a person out onto the street," adding, "So accidents happened here and there, and now it has become a caricature. He himself did not know his own strategy, and fundamentally lacked the tactics and strategy on how to conduct the election."

On the 'candidate replacement theory' raised by some, Professor Lee argued, "For a candidate replacement to happen, the approval rating gap must widen to double digits, and there must be public opinion that can lead this," adding, "The most important are the current lawmakers, senior party members, and conservative media. If these three show consensus saying 'This is no longer acceptable, we must change,' how could the candidate withstand that? Then I think it would be possible."

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