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February 05, 2008
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| The Democratic Labor Party, established eight years ago by former leftist student leaders and activists, faces looming chaos as the party’s minority “People’s Democracy” faction is threatening to leave the party over an ideological feud with the hard-left majority “National Liberation” group. Reacting to the growing division, acting DLP Chairwoman Sim Sang-jeong, who is also the leader of the party restructuring committee, announced yesterday that she would quit the committee because a party overhaul plan she helped devise was voted down by members on Sunday. She did not say if she would quit the party altogether. The restructuring plan, aimed at reviving the party’s flagging popular support by moderating hard-line positions, included abolishing the party’s pro-North Korea stance and expelling several party members who are suspected of leaking confidential information from the party to North Korea. “What we found out yesterday was that antiquated rules still dominate the party,” Sim said in a press conference. “What I and other committee members have emphasized is that there will be no future for the party if it fails to respond to criticism and warnings from the public.” Sim would not say if she will join other party members in creating a new liberal party, saying she would think about her next moves over the Lunar New Year holiday this week. The party’s hard-line majority National Liberation faction has been under attack from the smaller People’s Democracy group after the landslide loss in the 2007 presidential election. The party’s candidate, Kwon Young-ghil, who is from the majority faction, earned only 3 percent of the vote last December, far lower than the 13 percent he got in the 2002 presidential election. The party won 12 percent of the votes in the 2006 legislative election. While some party members want the party to shed its militant image, the hard-left majority is reluctant to give up its pro-North Korean politics. The National Liberation group defines the United States as an enemy of the Korean Peninsula and unification, blaming most ills on imperialism. The moderates focus more on workers’ rights and domestic issues. The two sides represented different ideological tendencies at the height of the student movement that led democracy protests in the 1970s and 1980s. The People’s Democrats dominated the party when it began in 2000 but the hard-liners prevailed after they began joining the party in greater numbers. A number of DLP lawmakers are fed up and want to create a new progressive party. Cho Seung-soo, a lawmaker who left the DLP last week, urged Sim to join the movement for a new party in a press conference yesterday. The official Web site of the party was also bombarded with postings from members asking how to cancel their party membership. By Kim Jung-ha JoongAng Ilbo/ Jung Ha-won Staff Reporter [hawon@joongang.co.kr] |
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