South Korea's political circles have been thrown into confusion, with President Roh Moo-hyun and the ruling Uri Party plunging increasingly deeper into conflict.
Frustrated over a lack of cooperation from Uri on key administrative affairs, the president has even publicly threatened to break with the governing party.
"I'm now left with just two political assets. They are the presidency and my membership in the Uri Party. If I were driven to corner, I would become the fourth president to quit the ruling party in the middle of a presidency," Roh told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The president even suggested he may step down before his five-year term ends in February 2008, though the veracity of the remark was immediately questioned.
The president and the ruling party, both dogged by nose-diving public approval ratings, have been increasingly estranged from each other since the beginning of this year.
Their conflict eventually came to the surface this week, as the president was forced to retract his decision to appoint Jeon Hyo-sook as the country's first female chief of the Constitutional Court.
In the face of fierce opposition from the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), the Uri Party has dragged its feet over a parliamentary endorsement of Jeon's nomination for over three months and finally demanded the president abandon her.
Venting bitter frustration at Jeon's aborted nomination and his failure to exercise the right of personnel management, Roh said,"I opted to withdraw my nomination for the chief of the Constitutional Court. I surrendered under realistically unavoidable circumstances."
Earlier this week, the president also proposed holding a pan-governmental consultation body comprising leaders from the government and ruling and opposition parties to discuss ways to work through stalemates in domestic politics, but received negative responses from the majority of Uri lawmakers as well as the GNP. Kim Geun-tae, chairman of the Uri Party, openly criticized Roh for failing to consult with the ruling party in advance about the proposal.
On Monday, Uri Party leaders snubbed the embattled president's request to have dinner together at his residence, Cheong Wa Dae.
The leadership of Uri Party has recently demanded the complete withdrawal of South Korean troops from Iraq, but Roh's cabinet hurriedly approved a bill Tuesday to extend their Iraqi deployment for another year.
The vernacular JoongAng Ilbo reported Wednesday that the president may bolt from Uri as soon as the ongoing National Assembly session is finished on Dec. 9, while the mainstream forces of the ruling party are likely to display visible moves to create a new party.
According to the latest opinion poll by a Seoul-published daily newspaper, the popularity of the Uri Party has fallen to an all-time low of 8.8 percent, compared with over 44 percent for the GNP. Roh's own approval rating has also plummeted to slightly over 10 percent, the survey showed.
"The president has to get his hands off politics. Instead he has to be entirely devoted to state affairs," Rep. Park Byeong-seug of Uri Party told reporters, emerging from an emergency meeting of party leaders on Tuesday night.
Another Uri lawmaker who attended the meeting also said that the party leaders discussed all possibilities, including the president's secession from the party.
In a swift and angry response, however, Roh's chief of staff Lee Byung-wan said Wednesday morning that the president has never intervened in domestic political affairs.
Seoul, Nov. 29 (Yonhap News)
President Roh escalates conflict with ruling party |
