Park-Choo talks may split liberals

Opposition parties voiced criticism Monday over the planned meeting between President Park Geun-hye and chairwoman of the main opposition party Choo Mi-ae that any talk with Park now will give the embattled president a chance to salvage her “virtually dead” presidency.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea and presidential hopeful, called Choo’s proposal for the talk an “obvious misjudgment” of the situation.

“I am afraid the talk would do Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office) good and bisect opposition forces,” he said. 

“It is clear to me that the public don’t want Park to be their president, not for another second,” he added. The mayor has been calling for Park’s resignation, taking a more hawkish stance than the party’s official demand on Park to relinquish her executive power to the Cabinet.

The Democratic Party is Korea’s largest opposition party, holding 121 of 300 seats in the unicameral National Assembly. 

The People’s Party, a runner-up opposition group with 38 seats, expressed regrets over the leaders of the Democratic Party’s unilateral proposal.

“I doubt what Chairwoman Choo intends to do, whether she fully recognizes the people’s call as expressed in the candlelight vigil (last Saturday),” said Rep. Park Jie-won, the party’s floor leader.

The far-left minority Justice Party also criticized the planned Park-Choo summit. 

“South Koreans have made an ultimatum and are now waiting for the president to answer,” its chairwoman Rep. Sim Sang-jeung said, stressing that this is no time to sit at a negotiation table with Park.

While People’s Party and Justice Party have demanded Park’s ouster, the Democratic Party has been reluctant to push the matter that far. Its official stance now is that Park should step aside from domestic affairs for a new Cabinet, formed by the legislature, to run the country until the presidential election next December.

Meanwhile, the three parties agreed to pass Thursday a motion to launch an independent counsel-led investigation into the scandal involving President Park and her friend Choi Soon-sil who is accused of meddling is state affairs.

By Korea Herald staff(khnews@heraldcorp.com)