[Editorial] Lee’s chance to restart

Lee Jae-myung, who lost the presidential election to Yoon Suk-yeol by a slim margin in March, has reemerged as a key political leader representing the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea.

Lee won a total of 77.7 percent of the votes to become the chairman of the Democratic Party during the party’s national convention Sunday, suggesting that he enjoys predominant support from fellow party members. Furthermore, four of the five Supreme Council members are pro-Lee lawmakers.

The Democratic Party is indeed in dire need of a fresh momentum to steer ahead. The chair position of the opposition party has been vacant since March. Not only did the party lose the presidential election but also it fared badly in June local elections.

What’s particularly painful for the party is that it has lost many of good opportunities to recover its position even though President Yoon continued to stumble with misguided personnel choices and plunging approval ratings.

Although the Democratic Party’s dismal performance as the main opposition party cannot be entirely blamed on the leadership vacuum, it is certainly a factor that has weighed on the mind of party members and supporters.

Despite the defeat in the presidential election, Lee made a rather strong political comeback in June by winning a parliamentary seat for Incheon’s Gyeyang-B district in a by-election, laying the ground for ascending to the party leadership.

But Lee is in no position to be complacent about his political clout. After all, he is yet to prove his capability as a leader for the party in disarray at a time when the country faces a host of difficult challenges.

Right after the party convention, Lee was quick to stress that he would focus on improving the people’s livelihoods as the Democratic Party chief, a stance that, if successfully played out, would boost the party’s standing.

In connection with his focus, Lee proposed Monday to hold a meeting with President Yoon. The agenda would revolve around pending economic issues, as the country finds itself in a precarious situation due to a mix of factors including soaring inflation, a widening trade deficit, increasing interest rates and the weakening of the Korean won against the US dollar.

On Tuesday, the Democratic Party repeated a call for a meeting between the two leaders, but President Yoon seemed reluctant to hold a one-on-one meeting with Lee. Instead, the presidential office is hinting at its preference for a three-person meeting involving Yoon and two chairs from the governing and opposition parties.

The Democratic Party slammed the presidential office’s stance, arguing that it is no time to pick and choose a format of the proposed meeting. A high-ranking official from the Democratic Party told a local radio program Tuesday that the presidential office should step forward to accept Lee’s proposal to quickly address urgency issues affecting people’s livelihoods.

Yoon might have some reservations about such a meeting at this point. He has yet to firm up his political stature after witnessing his approval ratings spiraling out of control. And yet there seem to be few better alternatives, since the main opposition party controls a supermajority of the parliament and the governing party as well as Yoon need bipartisan cooperation from the Democratic Party to push ahead with various reform measures.

At the same time, Lee has to set proper priorities in asking such meeting with Yoon. Lee must not use the meeting as a chance to avoid investigations by the prosecution office over his alleged corruption scandal over land development projects in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. To set things right, Lee should take actions over the damaging allegations. That is what Lee can and should do to truly reposition himself as a leader of the opposition party, saddled with a dearth of fresh policy initiatives.