On CBS Radio's 'Park Jae-hong's One Round,' Seo said Jung is '100 percent' likely to run for party leader
"The people are eternal; governments are fleeting."
Conservative political commentator and attorney Seo Jung-wook said Democratic Party of Korea leader Jung Chung-rae had "completely touched the emperor's reverse scale" with that remark. Jung delivered it Wednesday at the party's first Supreme Council meeting since the June 3 local elections, even as calls for his resignation mounted.
Seo made the comments Thursday on CBS Radio's "Park Jae-hong's One Round," saying Jung had "touched President Lee Jae Myung's reverse scale." He noted that President Lee had told The Economist that the chances of him being impeached or detained were "pretty high," and said Lee carries deep psychological scars. "He never knows when he might end up in court, detained or impeached," Seo said. He went on to say that the late President Roh Moo-hyun was impeached by Choo Mi-ae — now Gyeonggi Province governor — and that Lee could harbor a sense of victimhood, fearing Jung might do the same to him. "This has completely crossed a red line," Seo added.
He predicted that Jung and President Lee would ultimately collide head-on. "The two are oil and water — they will go all the way to a total rupture," he said.
On whether Jung would seek re-election as party leader at the Democratic Party convention scheduled for Aug. 17, Seo said he was "100 percent" certain Jung would run. "I think he has the advantage and a high probability of winning," he added.
Seo argued that President Lee holds sway over National Assembly members and the speaker but not over rank-and-file party members or the general public. "In this election too, everyone Lee backed — starting with Seoul mayoral candidate Jeong Won-o — lost. Among party members, Lee has always been on the periphery," he said.
He added that while the late former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan had championed Lee Jae Myung and helped him become a presidential candidate, Lee is not a deep-rooted heir of the traditional liberal camp. Seo also noted that party members still harbor lingering resentment toward former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok over his defection from Roh Moo-hyun to Chung Mong-joon during the 2002 presidential election.
Seo said Jung's roots lie in the Honam region, noting that his hometown of Geumsan was simply reclassified into the Chungcheong administrative zone. "So the traditional liberal base will still say, 'It's Jung Chung-rae — better him than Kim Min-seok,'" he said, forecasting that Jung stands a strong chance of winning a second term as party leader.
jshan@heraldcorp.com
