It may sound ironic, but the demise last week of a major progressive party should reawaken Korean society to the need to foster healthy progressive political forces.
There is no doubt that the Constitutional Court’s ruling to disband the Unified Progressive Party triggered the gravest crisis for the nation’s progressives as a whole since they entered mainstream politics a decade ago.
Making matters worse for the progressive bloc, the UPP’s exit came at a time when it is already in tatters in the aftermath of successive splits and mergers, internal power struggles and disputes over policy lines.
But the most devastating blow must be that the Constitutional Court’s ruling proved that the nation’s progressives are dominated by radical ideologues pursuing North Korean-style socialism and the revolutionary strategy of overthrowing the government in South Korea through the use of force.
Given South Koreans’ sensitivity to security threats from North Korea, this could further shrink the progressives’ place in society.
Despite their short history in contemporary national politics, Korea’s progressives managed to increase their political clout steadily since they established the Democratic Labor Party in 2000.
Built around labor activists, the party performed impressively in the 2004 general elections, earning 13.1 percent of the votes and sending 10 members to the National Assembly. It raised hopes that progressives, long suppressed during the past authoritarian governments, would be able to become a legitimate political force.
The DLP, however, failed to sustain the momentum, largely because of problems like internal power struggles and disputes over policy lines, notably those on North Korea.
The party was overtaken by pro-North Korean leftists in 2006, prompting moderates to leave and form their own party under the name of the New Progressive Party in 2008.
The progressive forces regrouped in 2011 as the United Progressive Party, which pulled off a stunning success in the 2012 general election by taking 13 parliamentary seats and emerging as the third-biggest group in the National Assembly.
Its hard-won clout did not last long, however, as it grew divided in the wake of irregularities in selecting candidates for lawmakers to be elected by proportional representation and disputes between pro-North Korean forces and moderates. The latter group left the UPP to form what is now the Justice Party.
Those who remained in the UPP were the hardcore far-leftists whose activities ― which even included discussion of an armed rebellion to overthrow the government ― invited the Constitutional Court’s ruling.
These are the same people who, while challenging the legitimacy of their own government, never criticize the North’s nuclear development program, its dynastic succession of power and gross violation of human rights.
Any society needs diverse political views and ideologies and the existence of healthy, sound progressives is essential in Korean society. We need progressives and liberals who will speak out for labor rights, welfare, and protection of the weak and underprivileged, instead of mimicking and chanting the outdated doctrine and ideology of North Korea.
Cheon Ho-seon, leader of the Justice Party, said recently that the UPP represents “old-fashioned progressivism” and that his party does not support the now-defunct party’s pro-North Korean policies and activities.
“The Justice Party has already overcome the ideology and culture related to activism of the past and is trying to build a modern progressive party, formulating its vision by learning from the experience of northern European countries,” he said.
We hope that more members of the progressive bloc will take a lesson from the end of the UPP and cut ties with pro-North Korean forces, and work for development of mature, sound progressivism and liberalism in this society.
