Novice liberal ruling party lawmakers stay low-key in meeting with Moon

President Moon Jae-in speaks during a meeting with first-term lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday. Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae

By Nam Hyun-woo

First-term lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) ended up beating around the bush during their meeting with President Moon Jae-in on Thursday, despite the initial anticipation that they might challenge the President concerning his failed policies, including real estate, economy and a number of fairness issues that resulted in the party’s crushing defeat in the April 7 by-elections for the Seoul and Busan mayor positions.

According to Cheong Wa Dae, 68 first-term DPK lawmakers visited the presidential office and discussed pending state affairs. The meeting took place upon the lawmakers’ earlier request.

“During the meeting, Rep. Ko Young-in expressed his gratitude to Moon for accepting the request and acknowledged the positive outcomes of the Korea-U.S. summit last month,” presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said after the meeting. “He added that the COVID-19 pandemic has incurred greater pain to socially marginalized people, and said the administration needs to strengthen its efforts to establish a more systematic social safety net, including disaster relief funds.”

Initially, the meeting had been anticipated to spark a heated debate about former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, who fell into political disgrace following improper investments and an academic fraud scandal involving his family, which is blamed as one of the reasons for declining public support for the administration, as well as the DPK’s landslide by-election defeats.

Also, bungled policies concerning real estate regulations, the public’s livelihood, cryptocurrency and other pending matters, which are also mentioned as the causes of the defeats, were expected to be mentioned, because the lawmakers have been making efforts to listen to public opinion on these issues.

After the by-election defeats in April, these first-term lawmakers formed a faction and have been calling for an overhaul within the party. While doing so, the faction has raised opinions contradictory to the party’s or Moon’s ideas and policies.

Last month, more than 40 of them demanded that Moon withdraw his nomination of at least one of three minister nominees who were criticized by opposition parties for ethical lapses. Amid the row, Minister of Oceans and Fisheries nominee Park Jun-young voluntarily withdrew from the nomination process before finishing his National Assembly confirmation hearing.

This withdrawal came as a major embarrassment not only for the party’s seasoned lawmakers but also for Cheong Wa Dae, because Moon said in an April press conference that the hearing system is “being misused to humiliate nominees, rather than to review whether the candidates are a good fit for the job.”

Against this backdrop, keen interest has been on the meeting, as some of the participants were expected to criticize Moon’s selection of aides and policies, but in fact, they did not touch upon sensitive issues for Moon.

A senior official at Cheong Wa Dae said that neither Moon nor the attending lawmakers mentioned former minister Cho, although they made a number of suggestions for Moon’s vaccination and energy policies, as well as demands for an expansion of fiscal spending.

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Ko Young-in, who leads a group of first-term lawmakers of the party, speaks regarding the group’s meeting with President Moon Jae-in, during a press conference at the National Assembly, Thursday. Yonhap

During a separate press conference, Rep. Ko, who leads the first-term lawmaker group, said “the lawmakers did not feel the necessity to ask the President about those issues” in reference to the matter of former minister Cho and real estate regulations.

According to sources, some lawmakers began to touch on real estate issues during the meeting, but their comments were mostly about expanding the housing supply rather than suggestions or criticism about the government’s real estate regulations, which many Koreans are blaming as the main reason for soaring housing prices in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.

Regarding the meeting, the conservative main opposition People Power Party said in a statement that “the 68 lawmakers’ voices were smaller than that of DPK Chairman Song Young-gil.” On Wednesday, Song apologized to the public for the scandal over former minister Cho.