The main opposition Democratic United Party on Sunday picked seven current members to join its emergency leadership committee that will be tasked with moving forward from last month’s presidential election defeat.

Reps. Sul Hoon, Kim Dong-cheol, Moon Byeong-ho, Park Hong-keun and Bae Jae-jeung have been picked to sit on the interim committee, a party spokesman said. The party also appointed former party supreme council member Lee Yong-deuk and Oh Jung-gi, a member of the DUP’s North Gyeongsang Province chapter.

The seven party members along with Rep. Moon Hee-sang, the party’s emergency interim leader, and floor leader Park Ki-choon will move to normalize the party that has been reeling from the defeat in the presidential poll on Dec. 19. Two non-party members who will join the emergency committee have yet to be selected.

DUP presidential hopeful Moon Jae-in was defeated by ruling Saenuri Party standard bearer Park Geun-hye by little over 1.08 million votes. The defeat caused the leadership to resign en masse and triggered internal disputes as rival factions blamed each other for the defeat and scrambled to take control.

Party sources said the committee, which will hold power until a national convention is held to pick new leaders, will focus on evaluating the presidential election, set up policies to push forward political reforms and deal with other administrative matters. (Yonhap News)