Pushing ahead with disciplinary action only gives Jang more reasons to resign, PPP lawmaker says

People Power Party lawmaker Park Jeong-hun said Tuesday that if the party pushes ahead with the disciplinary action, "the reasons for disciplining and for the resignation of party leader Jang Dong-hyeok will only keep piling up," adding that the party would lose its standing to criticize the Democratic Party.

Speaking on CBS Radio that day, Park said the handling of the party spokesperson, the ethics committee chair and the party affairs audit committee chair had all gone wrong, pushing the party in a direction out of step with public sentiment and isolating it. "I also get the sense that the ethics committee members are hesitant to make a snap decision precisely because public opinion is souring this badly," he added.

Park said the issue was not simply about backing an independent candidate. "We need to look at this from the perspective of whether we are becoming a party capable of taking power — or not," he said.

He added that floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik had himself said on multiple occasions that the disciplinary action was wrong. "This must not be reduced to a problem of just the pro-Han faction within our party. It reflects the thinking of the sensible majority of our lawmakers," Park said.

On party leader Jang Dong-hyeok, Park said Jang was "the person who made things difficult for the party and was judged for it in the local elections." He accused Jang of having expelled Han Dong-hoon based on a post Han never wrote — one written by someone who merely shared his name — thereby "exploding intraparty conflict and splitting the conservatives in two."

Park went on to say Jang was "playing a kind of last card to avoid resigning, because he sees that his political space is shrinking and that resigning would leave him with no political future — and I think that comes from fear." He urged Jang to break free from that fear, saying it could open another political opportunity for him. "Please, I hope he comes back to his senses," Park said.