Ongoing 'Yun Hae-gwan' Controversy Within People Power Party... "Expression Should Be Avoided"

Rep. Kim Eun-hye Draws a Line Saying "Why Am I a Yoon Core Member?"
Rep. Jo Hae-jin Targets Rep. Kwon Seong-dong Mentioning 'The Scarlet Letter'

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is presiding over the transition committee secretariat meeting at the 20th Presidential Transition Committee in Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the 5th. Photo by Transition Committee Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Kum Boryeong] Controversy over so-called 'Yun Hae-gwan' (key associates of Yoon Seok-yeol) continues within the People Power Party. Representative Kwon Seong-dong, classified as the original Yun Hae-gwan, is challenging for the floor leader position, and Representative Kim Eun-hye, who was the spokesperson for President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol, has thrown her hat into the ring for the June 1 local election for Gyeonggi Province governor.

On the 7th, Representative Kim responded to the question "Do you admit to being a Yun Hae-gwan?" on CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' by saying, "Why am I a Yun Hae-gwan?" and added, "Being close means that as a spokesperson, I always have to understand the intentions of President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol, and there inevitably have to be discussions about current issues related to that."

Representative Kim continued, "In that sense, if you call me a Yun Hae-gwan, then I think everyone who voted for President-elect Yoon during this regime change should be called Yun Hae-gwan." Representative Kim stepped down from her spokesperson position on the 5th and officially declared her candidacy for Gyeonggi Province governor the day before. She will compete in the primary against former Representative Yoo Seung-min, who declared his candidacy on the 31st of last month.

During this process, speculation arose that Representative Kim's candidacy for Gyeonggi Province governor reflected President-elect Yoon's intentions. However, Representative Kim drew a line by saying, "The current primary rules put me at a 5% disadvantage because I am an incumbent lawmaker," and added, "If someone's intention was reflected, would all those votes come to me?"

Regarding the controversy over Representative Kim's connection to Yoon's intentions, former Representative Yoo said, "Honestly, I don't know well about President-elect Yoon's thoughts," and mentioned, "I called the President-elect the evening of my candidacy announcement. The President-elect has several candidates, so who would he favor and support?"

The People Power Party floor leader election, to be held the next day, is also unfolding as a 'Yun Hae-gwan' versus 'non-Hae-gwan' battle. Representative Cho Hae-jin, who declared his candidacy for floor leader, said, "The moment a political group is given a popular nickname, it becomes a crisis and a red flag. When names like 'the three key aides' or 'Sip-sang-si' were given externally, it was a public stigma," and added, "While such naming can be regarded as a badge of honor, it quickly turned into a scarlet letter," targeting Representative Kwon.

Representative Kwon appeared on KBS Radio's 'Choi Kyung-young's Strong Current Affairs' that day and emphasized, "I judged on my own that regime change through President-elect Yoon was possible, so I helped from the beginning," and added, "If we achieved regime change by helping like that, the credit should be recognized. It should be avoided to lump it together and repeatedly portray me as someone who is after some vested interests or power."

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