Heading into the new year, South Korea’s ruling People Power Party apologized over the political mess caused by now-suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched attempt to impose martial law last month.
Rep. Kwon Young-se, who took over Monday as the People Power Party’s interim chair in yet another leadership shake-up, said Wednesday he was “deeply sorry to the South Korean people for the state of things” in his first message of 2025.
Kwon said the People Power Party was committed to “stabilizing the country” as the fallout from the short-lived martial law declaration “deepens economic wounds and complicates the political situation.”
The South Korean won plunged to a 16-year low against the US dollar last week, as the opposition Democratic Party of Korea voted to oust Han Duck-soo, the acting president, in the second impeachment of a chief executive in less than a month.
Kwon said his party will “strive for change to regain the trust of the people” while “staying united” in the face of continuing turmoil.
Speaking to reporters, Kwon said a top priority of his party for the new year will be “restoring stability” in the country. “Our decisions and actions will be guided by the goal of national stability,” he said.
Kwon is a five-term lawmaker representing Yongsan-gu, a Seoul district that became symbolic of the Yoon administration, which moved the presidential office from the Blue House to the Ministry of National Defense compound, located there. Kwon was also a member of Yoon’s inaugural Cabinet, serving as his first minister of inter-Korean affairs for over a year until July 2023.
Despite having been part of Yoon’s transition team and his Cabinet, the new leader of the People Power Party has kept his distance from the hardline pro-Yoon faction of the party and built a reputation of being a “soft-spoken moderate.”
Kwon came to helm the president’s party at a time as the possibility of his impeachment looms.
More earnest calls for shaking up the status quo came from the Democratic Party, which wants to expedite the Constitutional Court’s verdict on the National Assembly’s impeachment of Yoon.
Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party chair, said “hopes are high for a new South Korea” as the country witnessed a time of “unprecedented darkness” in the past year.
“With a heavy heart, we recognize it as our responsibility to together overcome the tragedy and hardship ahead of us, and open up a new future,” he said.
Lee, who narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 election, is likely to run as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate again -- if the Constitutional Court rules to remove Yoon in time. Lee’s second bid for the presidency depends on whether the Constitutional Court rules to uphold Yoon’s impeachment before a separate court potentially confirms a prison sentence for the Democratic Party chair in a trial set for around May.
The Democratic Party has been pressing the embattled president to respond to summonses from law enforcement, saying “no one is above the law.”
arin@heraldcorp.com
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