Strife between two factions of the governing Saenuri Party peaked on the eve of a parliamentary revote on President Park Geun-hye’s veto, a de-facto deadline for its floor leader to decide on his own fate.

Rep. Yoo Seong-min has been under severe pressure from Cheong Wa Dae and Saenuri lawmakers loyal to the president to resign for not cooperating with Park’s major state agenda.

The pro-Park members sent Yoo a verbal ultimatum to step down as soon as the party abandons the vetoed bill during a plenary session Monday. They claimed that it would offer the public an impression of him leaving the post to take responsibility for causing political chaos over the bill. It would be his opportunity to “honorably” resign from the post, they added.

Yoo has since refused to step down, backed by a group of nonmainstream lawmakers and his sympathizers who accused pro-Park members’ attempt as a mere political witch hunt.

He also refrained to comment on his fate Sunday, but reiterated that the party would not participate in the revote.

“We have decided not to vote tomorrow,” he said. “This is what we concluded at a previous general meeting on June 25.”

Despite the vehement demands from the pro-Park faction, Yoo may choose to resist and seek a political breakthrough by keeping his position, some party officials said. Yoo has already announced that he would preside over a parliamentary meeting Tuesday, a day after the deadline pronounced by Park’s loyalists.

If Yoo resists the demand, the pro-Park members could hold a general meeting to oust him from the Saenuri leadership.

Exercising her first veto, Park blasted Yoo for succumbing to the opposition’s demand to pass a revision to National Assembly law, which enables lawmakers to challenge the government’s administrative power.

Yoo led a legislative deal with the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy to pass the bill on the condition of agreeing on the passage of a reform bill on civil servants’ pension, a crucial part of Park’s reform drive.

By Cho Chung-un
(christory@heraldcorp.com)